


Marauders - Kickoff (First Year)

by Iwritestupidstuffforfun



Series: Marauders [1]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Friendship, Gen, Gryffindor, Gryffindor vs. Slytherin Rivalry, Hogwarts, Hogwarts Inter-House Relationships, Marauders, Marauders Era (Harry Potter), Marauders Friendship (Harry Potter), Mischief, Pre-War, Rivalry, fem!Jily
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-02
Updated: 2021-03-11
Packaged: 2021-03-12 17:01:27
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 22,478
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28513866
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Iwritestupidstuffforfun/pseuds/Iwritestupidstuffforfun
Summary: 'The sun rose above Godric’s Hollow, peeking out from behind the rolling moors beyond the village, making the leaves of trees in the nearby wood shine a bright neon green. A sparrow spread its wings and kicked off of the branch it had been resting on as the early morning breeze ruffled its feathers.First of September. The first day of school for as many children as there were seats in classrooms. A normal day by all accounts. The peaceful precursor of chaos...'The story of the marauders as told by me. Friendships will be made, broken, damaged. Heated rivalries contrasted by peaceful harmony and wild thrill. Mischief galore.Also Fem!James. Idk, I read some stuff and got inspired. Will impact and cause some plot twists but does not affect major character traits, relationships, or plot.This is all purely for fun (and practice) :)
Relationships: Alice Longbottom/Frank Longbottom, James Potter/Lily Evans Potter, Lily Evans Potter & Severus Snape, Marlene McKinnon/Emmeline Vance, Sirius Black & Remus Lupin & Peter Pettigrew & James Potter, Sirius Black/Remus Lupin
Series: Marauders [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2088729
Comments: 7
Kudos: 7





	1. Pancakes, Purebloods, and Fenrir Greyback (ft. One Blonde Party Pooper and a Scarlet Steam Engine)

_Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc., are the property of their respective owner (J. K. Rowling). The original characters and plot are the property of the author of this story. The authors are in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any previously copyrighted material. No copyright infringement is intended. No relationships are incestual unless expressly stated otherwise. **Contains profanities and violence, as well as death and references and/or direct shows of abuse.** The story slightly diverges from canon (as little as there is to it) and some character arcs and traits are modified (as are certain genders). (x) _

* * *

The sun rose above Godric’s Hollow, peeking out from behind the rolling moors beyond the village, making the leaves of trees in the nearby wood shine a bright neon green. A sparrow spread its wings and kicked off of the branch it had been resting on as the early morning breeze ruffled its feathers.

First of September. The first day of school for as many children as there were seats in classrooms. A normal day by all accounts. The peaceful precursor of chaos.

“Mum! Mum! Dad! I can’t find my wand! I think Monty ate it!”

“Owls don’t eat wands, dear. You must’ve left it in your cauldron.”

“I looked in my cauldron! See, _The Standard Book of Spells, A Beginner’s Guide to Transfiguration, One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi_ – oh.” There was a brief pause. “Never mind, Mum, I’ve found it.”

Dora rolled her eyes at her daughter’s antics, silently hoping that forgetting one’s wand wasn’t going to become a frequent occurrence with her. She had a sudden vision of the wild-haired girl running frantically back and forth the corridors of Hogwarts, barrelling down lines of students like a maniac.

A tall, black-haired man with kind, brown eyes, and a marginally tamer mane than that of his daughter entered the room and looked up at the ceiling, which was currently vibrating with Jamie’s excited footsteps as she ran around packing everything up in preparation for her departure. Granted, that wasn’t due for another two hours, but who were they to rain on her parade.

“I may be wrong,” he said, looking over at Dora in amusement, “but I think our little Starlet might be a little excited for her first day.”

Dora snorted, smacking her husband lightly on the arm, “Like you were any different. She takes after you in this, you know. If she gives that tiny body of hers a heart attack it’ll be your fault.”

“And you weren’t this happy on your first day?”

“You forget, honey, joyfulness happens to be quite the taboo on my side of our family,” she said, the corners of her mouth quirking up.

Charlus smacked himself on the forehead in mock surprise. “And here I was, wondering why they never let us go to family dinners!”

The two grown Potters snickered quietly at the shared joke. Charlus, recovering first, kissed Dora on the forehead and touched her shoulder, brushing past her to the kitchen.

“I’ll go make breakfast. Pancakes, I think. It’s a special day, after all.”

“Just don’t eat all the batter.”

His eyes twinkled and he winked, “No promises.”

Dora shook her head and smiled, the corners of her eyes crinkling. How she ended up with such a wonderful dumbass, she didn’t know, but she was forever glad for it.

A blur of black, red, and brown tumbled down the stairs. When the dust settled, Dora could see her eleven-year-old daughter lying on the ground, spread-eagled, her trunk lying flat on her chest. So, really, all she could see of her were her feet and the dark tufts of her hair.

“Ow.”

Dora blinked in shock and hurried over, “Do you want help with that?”

Jamie groaned from underneath the trunk, “No, I want to lie here, crushed forever.”

“Really, one would think you share a braincell with your Father,” Dora said, pulling her wand out and flicking her wrist. The trunk levitated off of Jamie, who was finally free to sit up and rub her forehead, screwing her eyes up as her head rung with the impact.

“Are you alright? You didn’t fall the entire flight, did you?” Dora looked her over, concerned.

“No, just half.”

Jamie pushed herself off the ground and stretched, her back cracking. Luckily, being eleven and having retained most of that juvenile elasticity, she was quite alright. Her bruised backside not counted that was.

“Are those pancakes I’m smelling?” she said, brightening up instantly, a smile stretching over her face.

Dora grinned at her enthusiasm. “You might even be able to salvage the first if you’re fast enough.”

Not wasting a moment, Jamie sped off, swinging past doorways, and bumping into umbrella stands.

She smiled widely and her heart leaped as she skid into the kitchen, almost slipping in her haste. The first day of Hogwarts could not have started off better.

* * *

Sirius Black stared down at his breakfast, determined not to make eye contact with anyone, a grin ever-present on his tired face. He hadn’t gotten much sleep the other night – non at all, really – thinking about how the next day he would finally be able to leave.

Granted, he was likely to be sorted into Slytherin like the rest of his twisted family, but it was an escape, nonetheless.

New setting, new rules and, most importantly, new people.

“The second you get to the train, find your cousins. They’ll get you connected to the right people from the beginning.”

It was his Mother, frowning down at him, her hair already perfectly made up and pinned back. Sirius could almost feel her eyes boring into him, as if by looking at him hard enough, she could make him do exactly as she asked.

Not waiting for a response, she continued.

“Steer clear of the wrong sort. Muggleborns, blood traitors –”

Sirius snorted and murmured, “Right, ‘cause if I don’t, I’ll catch the traitor-cooties….”

Walburga smacked the table, making Sirius flinch back. To his right, Regulus spilled his tea down his front and, pulling a face, rushed off to change.

“This is not a joke, Sirius,” she said, her grey eyes cold and dark. “You are the heir to the Noble House of Black. Do not even _think_ about repeating last summer.”

“I only tried to help –”

“We do not _help_ them, Sirius. We do not associate with them at all! They are beneath us – brutes, violent savages.” She sat back and took a deep breath, her eyes never leaving Sirius’s downturned forehead. “The sooner you learn that the better.”

Sirius pushed away his food. “I’m not hungry anymore.”

Before his Mother could protest, he ran out of the room, ducking past his Father in the doorway and raced up the stair, pushing off of the banister.

He dove into his room and slammed the door behind him, breathing heavily.

Like every other room in the family house, Sirius’ was draped in a myriad of green shades. It was quite majestic and entirely impersonal. There was simply no ‘Sirius’ to be seen. The walls were dark and bare save a tapestry, stuck to the wall with a Permanent Sticking Charm. Sirius’ trunk stood packed in the corner, ready for Kreacher to lug it down.

He face-planted on the bed and let himself sink into the mattress. He had been hoping to avoid such a conversation altogether. Already so confused about everything, his core belief system cast into doubt after _The Incident_ two years prior, he didn’t need to listen to his parents drabble about how important they all were. Especially since everything else Sirius observed suggested otherwise.

The door creaked open and Sirius turned his head, coming face to face with Regulus, now dressed in fresh new robes, holding a game of Gobstones in his hands.

“Heya, Reg, do you need anything?” he said.

Regulus shifted from one foot to another, then – gesturing to the Gobstones set – said timidly, “I was just – well, since you’re leaving today and, you know, not coming back for a while – I was wondering if you’d play one last game with me?”

Sirius smiled. At least one person in his family hadn’t gone completely crazy.

“Sure.”

* * *

Lyall Lupin sat on the porch overlooking the garden, watching his three-year-old son play fetch with Daisy, the family Labrador. Hope was in the kitchen, making tea.

It was evening already, almost dark, actually. Fireflies buzzed around the Flutterby trees at the end of the garden and Lyall closed his eyes for a second, revelling in the peace of the day. The Werewolf Legislation Paper had been signed the day before, and he had had quite the hand at the project. Three weeks of restless work it had cost him and now, finally, he could relax.

Just as he was dozing off, a putrid smell hit his nostrils and he heard the gate creak open. His eyes flew open to see a grisly, ragged-looking man in his garden, standing just a little ways away from his son, leering at him with pointed, yellowed teeth.

“What are you doing? Who are you? Get away from my son! This is private property!” Lyall stood up and hurried down the stairs towards them. He was still a good ten metres away.

The man bared his teeth, “You’ll know who I am soon enough, Lyall Lupin.”

He looked up at the sky and Lyall followed his gaze. The full moon peeked out at them from behind a cloud.

“No,” Lyall whispered, panic creeping into his veins. He looked back at the man. “No, stop!”

Too late, he grabbed his wand. The man started to turn and, mid-transformation, leapt at the child, who had been watching the confrontation with wide eyes. Daisy got in between, but the wolf tore her throat open and advanced, his target paralysed on the ground with fear.

Fenrir Greyback sunk his teeth into Remus Lupin’s shoulder. A scream cut through the night.

* * *

A family of four perused Diagon Alley in early August of 1971, two adults and two girls, one blonde and one with hair like a shiny copper penny. Both Mr. and Mrs. Evans were bright eyed, gaping and gasping at the magical world around them. Lily smiled at her parents’ excitement, herself quite ecstatic, overwhelmed with happiness and, for the first time in her life, truly feeling she was where she was meant to be. Still, her mood was dampened slightly by the blonde party pooper shuffling along behind them.

Unlike the rest of her family, Petunia was not at all happy to be in Diagon Alley, quite the contrary, really. She did her very best to glare at each and every witch and wizard they passed, earning herself quite a few dirty looks. She couldn’t keep the little twinkle of wonder out of her eyes, though, and so kept her face turned firmly away from her sister, determined to retain her position as the wet rag of the event.

Having already converted a reasonable amount of cash as per the suggestion of the ministry official they had met with a few weeks prior, the group now ducked from shop to shop, weaving through the crowd, and lugging with them countless books and quills and parchment. They even had to get a cauldron.

“Really,” said Mr. Evans, struggling to balance the cauldron and books in his arms as he walked, “can’t we just pop into one of our lot’s shops and buy a notebook?”

“Dear,” Mrs. Evans chided, “I’m sure the wizard school –”

“Hogwarts,” Lily supplied.

“– yes, Hogwarts – has a very good reason for all of this stuff.” Mrs. Evans stopped walking and consulted the list of supplies that had come with Lily’s Hogwarts letter. “Oh, would you look at that! We only need to get your wand now!”

Petunia scoffed, “Of course, the weirdos need a magic wand.” She crossed her arms and rolled her eyes.

Lily looked back her with sad eyes, “Tuney –”

“Save it.”

“Don’t argue, girls,” said Mr. Evans, readjusting his hold on Lily’s new cauldron. “We’ll go get your stuff for school tomorrow, Petty.”

“Why bother, it’s just the same old stuff,” Petunia grumbled quietly. Mr. Evans didn’t hear her and so, instead of answering, stumbled ahead, stopping before a shop some five metres up the street.

“It’s here isn’t it?” he called to his wife and kids. “Ollivander’s.”

A smile spread over Lily’s face, her insides bubbling with thrill. She ran up to her dad and peered through the shop window. As far as she could tell, all that was in the shop were rows and rows of dark shelves and a grumpy looking cat staring at them from a worn grey armchair.

A bell fixed to the doorway tingled and the door swung open, startling Lily, and making her jump back into Mr. Evans. A pair of wild pale eyes peered at them from underneath a halo of white, tufty hair. Lily shivered.

“Why, hello there,” the old man said. “Here to get your first wand, are you?”

“Yes,” Lily said, coming out of her shock quicker than her parents, who were still staring at the thin-faced wild-haired old man in disbelief. “Are you Mister Ollivander?”

“That’s me,” said Ollivander, smiling. “Come in, come in.”

Twenty minutes and half as many failed wands later, Lily came out of Ollivander’s shop content, happy and – for the while at least – not caring what Petunia thought of her.

* * *

Peter stood outside platform nine and three-quarters, staring at the barrier between platforms nine and ten.

“I don’t want to, Mum.”

Mrs. Pettigrew pat him on the back, “Don’t worry, bug, just take a run at it and you’ll pass right through.”

“I wish I could go with you,” Wendy, his sister, sighed, staring longingly at the barrier.

In a motion not unlike his mother’s, Peter reached over and pat her on the shoulder. “At least you get to be home for another two years. You’ll know exactly what to do when I come back and tell you about it. I’ll have to do all the hard stuff first.”

“But two years is _forever_.”

Their mother laughed and pushed Peter forward lightly, “Alright, you two, off you go, the train leaves in three minutes and we still need to find a nice compartment for Peter to sit in.”

Looking around anxiously to make sure no muggles were looking his way, Peter walked quickly towards the barrier. His heart thumped in his chest and he went all the faster, running at the wall at full speed, almost tripping over his trolley. He was going to crash; he was sure of it. Turning away from the wall he braced for impact.

Only it never came. Peter kept running and running, until he ran straight into a strict-looking witch with a repulsive vulture hat perched atop her head.

“Watch where you’re going, child,” she said irately and, dusting herself off, marched briskly off further into the crowd.

“Sorry,” Peter mumbled after her.

He was already distracted, however. The scarlet steam engine before him had captured all of little Peter’s attention, so much so that he didn’t even notice when his mother and sister came through behind him.

The train blew out steam and the crowd bristled as it billowed between the students and their teary relatives.

Peter grinned.

He had done it. He _was_ magic enough. And he was going to Hogwarts.


	2. Unicorns and Snivellus

Jamie pushed through the crowds on platform nine and three-quarters, past the tired-looking students and gaggling groups of children. She stopped a few times to observe tricks that a few more daring students were trying to show off to their friends and gasped when one let loose a purple firework that turned into a herd of sparkling unicorns, galloping above her head in wide circles.

 _I have to learn how to do that_.

A wide grin on her face, she hopped into the first free compartment she could find, gritting her teeth as she lugged her trunk up the stairs behind her. Three times, she almost fell back onto the platform, pulled down by the weight of her school supplies and clothing. Even the trunk itself wasn’t overly light. Once the trunk was in, she swung Monty’s cage onto the seat next to her and sat down with a huff.

A snuffle sounded from across from her. The compartment wasn’t free after all. Across from her sat a girl, first year like her, her face pressed up against the window, tears rolling down her cheeks.

Jamie shifted uncomfortably. The girl clearly didn’t want her to see that she was crying. It was probably best not to say anything. She sat there awkwardly for a while, doing her best to fixate on anything but her sniffling companion, making herself busy with a rubber ball she found in her pocket, having shoved it in there a few months ago on a whim.

Finally, after three minutes of sitting in silence, she couldn’t stand it anymore.

“Um,” she started, blinking up at the girl uncertainly. The latter jumped a little and tilted her head towards her. Jamie could see her eyes were a beautiful shade of green, the colour accentuated all the more by the red tint her crying had caused, “are you – are you alright there?”

The girl blinked back at the window once more, then met Jamie’ wary gaze.

“It’s okay, it’s just complicated,” she said hesitantly, fidgeting with a strand of red hair that had come between her nervous fingers. Tears stained her cheeks and pooled in her eyes, but she was determined not to let them fall.

Still, Jamie reached into her pocket and, from among the other rubbish that had accumulated there over time, pulled out a handkerchief. “Here,” she said, handing them over. “I’m Jamie, by the way. Jamie Potter.”

“Lily Evans.” Lily accepted the tissues gladly, wiping at her cheeks and eyes gingerly, still numb from her earlier spat with Petunia. This girl, Jamie, seemed nice at least. She tried her best to push her sadness down, not wanting to break down again in front of someone else.

“You can tell me if you want to,” said Jamie. “What’s going on I mean. Mum says talking about it helps.” The sincerity in her voice shook up Lily’s emotion yet again but, just as she was about to decide whether or not to trust her with the truth, the compartment door slid open.

“Hullo, free for one more?” A dark haired, pale eyed boy leaned against the door frame lugging a trunk behind him.

“Sure.” Jamie tore her attention away from Lily and gestured towards the empty seat across from her. “The more the merrier.”

Lily did not agree. She would have done anything in the world to have been alone in that very moment, but all the other compartments were full and Severus, the only person she knew, was nowhere to be found. Before she could object, Jamie and the boy – Sirius Black, as per his introduction – had launched into a full-blown conversation about Quidditch, enticed by the pin on Jamie’s jacket.

Puddlemere United.

Lily had never heard of them.

Calmer than she had been before, she went back to staring out of the window. Before she could find her parents in the crowd, the train’s whistle sounded, and the Hogwarts Express began to move. Soon, all any of them could see of the station – eye disparities or not – was an inconspicuous brick wall and colourful crowd below it.

A few minutes into the journey the door slid open a second time, opening – yet again – to a dark- haired boy. One would have to have been a fool, however, not to tell Sirius Black and Severus Snape apart. Severus was much thinner, much more sallow and – instead of in thick, shiny waves – his hair framed his face in thin, greasy strands – a few of them standing out of the rest in strange angles and clumps. His eyes, dark like tunnels and caves, were nowhere near as bright as Sirius’.

Jamie blinked at the boy as he barged past her and Sirius, falling into the seat opposite Lily. Sirius had, however, begun to state his opinion on fireworks and their various uses and Jamie, wanting to weigh in on the discussion, paid the strange sickly-looking boy no more heed.

“I don’t want to talk to you.” Lily glanced at the boy briefly and then resumed her fixation on the hills that they were just passing by. Her voice was constricted, her shoulders suddenly tense.

The boy, Severus, furrowed his brow, “Why not?”

“Tuney h – hates me. Because we saw that letter from Dumbledore.”

Severus was confused as to why any of this had anything to do with Lily’s want to talk to him. “So what?”

She scowled at him, throwing him a dirty look. “So, she’s my sister!”

“She’s only a –” Severus caught himself and threw Lily a panicked look. Luckily, Lily hadn’t heard him and was too busy trying to wipe her eyes of the tears that had sprung out without being noticed, her head turned away yet again.

“– and boom!” Sirius cackled to Severus’ left, miming an explosion with his hands.

“An explosion for the ages!” Jamie supplied. Then murmured, “Would have to find a way to get all those supplies though…”

Severus gave the rowdy duo a disapproving look, then turned back to Lily, grabbing her by the shoulder.

“But we’re going!” he said, exhilaration in his voice. “This is it! We’re off to Hogwarts!”

Lily looked at his hand a little startled, but smiled at his words, nodding in agreement. Severus smiled too.

“You’d better be in Slytherin,” he added.

“Slytherin?”

The word had grabbed Jamie’s attention.

“Who wants to be in Slytherin?” she said, raising her eyebrows a little. “I think I’d leave, wouldn’t you?” The next words were directed at Sirius, who she had already decided she liked quite a bit. Contrary to her expectations, however, he did not smile.

“My whole family have been in Slytherin,” he said.

“Blimey,” said Jamie, raising an eyebrow and smiling slightly, “and I thought you seemed all right!”

The grin returned to Sirius’ face and his eyes twinkled in defiance, “Maybe I’ll break the tradition. Where are you heading if you’ve got the choice?”

Jamie lifted a fist up in the air and said triumphantly, “’ _Gryffindor, where dwell the brave at heart!_ ’” – she looked around at them – “Like my dad.”

Severus snorted quietly. Jamie frowned, turning on him.

“Got a problem with that?”

“No,” Severus sneered. “If you’d rather be brawny than brainy –”

Sirius interrupted him, “Where’re you hoping to go, seeing as you’re neither?”

Jamie laughed loudly, almost choking. Lily, however, flushed, and eyed Sirius and Jamie with dislike. She couldn’t believe she had been about to pour her heart out to someone like that.

Come on, Severus, let’s find another compartment,” she said, standing up. She reckoned that if those two were headed to Gryffindor, then she’d be happy anywhere but. Bonus points if Severus came with her.

“Oooooo,” Jamie and Sirius mocked her lofty voice. Severus jumped over Jamie’s stuck out foot and stumbled out after Lily.

“See ya, Snivellus!” Sirius called and the compartment door slammed. The two, now alone in the compartment, caught each other’s eyes and promptly collapsed into a fit of giggles.

* * *

Remus had sat down in the emptiest compartment he could find. When he had entered, it had been void of its inhabitants, though their things still scattered the shelves and seats. He had assumed they were older students sitting with their friends, discarding their stuff here due to lack of space.

Only now did he know how wrong he was. They weren’t older, but the same age as him. And they were loud. The girl had messy black hair and a loud laugh and the widest grin he’d ever seen. The boy was grey-eyed and erratic. Remus had given up on joining their conversation the second they had started talking about Quidditch. He knew a lot about a myriad of things, but Quidditch was most definitely not one of them.

So, he sat by the window, reading his book, and looking out over the countryside, trying his hardest to ignore the dread that was growing in his chest.

“Watcha reading?”

Remus looked up. The grey-eyed boy was peering at him, trying to get a look at the cover of his book. Remus lifted the cover of his book up so he could read it properly.

“ _To Kill a Mockingbird_.” The girl raised an eyebrow. “That sounds morbid.”

“It’s really very good.”

The girl smiled, “I’ll bet. A bunch of the most famous books have morbid titles for some reason. Seems pretty counterproductive to me.”

“Dark titles are captivating. They make the reader want to know about what happens in the book and how it relates to it.”

The boy blinked, intrigued. “That’s smart. Sirius Black, by the way.” – he pointed to the girl across from him – “And that’s Jamie Potter.”

Jamie grinned and waved, “Hey.”

“Remus Lupin. And yeah, they’re written by smart people.”

“So, what, they trick people into reading their book just to find out what the title means? Couldn’t anyone just do that?” said Jamie, smirking.

Remus closed his book and folded his hands on the cover.

“I reckon,” he said, looking straight at Jamie, “that they’re counting on their readers being smart enough to recognise a good title from a half-arsed one.”

Jamie looked taken aback by his rebuttal, but her eyes twinkled. Sirius looked from Remus to Jamie and smiled.

He thumbed at Remus.

“I like this one.”


	3. One Dumb Hat

Sirius tripped as he ran down the stairs, faceplanting on the platform. Jamie looked back at him and laughed at his awkward position, his feet dangling in the air, his cheek smushed against the asphalt.

“You okay there, mate,” she said. Even from his vantage point Sirius could see she was choking back laughter.

He struggled to wrest himself from the ground, “Yeah, no thanks to you. Crummy friend you are, might ditch you when we get to the castle.”

She scoffed and offered him a hand, pulling him up. “Alright, drama queen. You’re not even scratched.”

“King.”

“What?”

“Not Queen, King.”

She raised an eyebrow and folded her arms on her chest, smirking. “Please, at this rate you’re more of a girl than I am.”

“Not much of a girl, though, are you? Knowing about Quidditch like you do.”

Jamie shrugged, “I can’t help what I like, besides,” – a sort of competitive look came over her – “I bet I could beat _you_ anytime.”

The crowd had ushered them all the way to the edge of the platform. Sirius turned on her.

“Oh yeah?” he said, looking remarkably like the Cheshire cat. “You wanna bet on that?”

“Ten Galleons.”

Sirius splayed a hand across his chest in mock shock, “Ten Galleons! Blimey, Potter, such an enormous sum! I don’t know if my heart can take it.”

Jamie snorted, “Shut up, Black. Shake on it?”

Sirius reached out his hand to shake hers and she clutched it firmly. The deal was done.

Jamie ran a hand through her hair, turning back to the front of the crowd, where a big, dark figure was slowly making its way towards them. “That’s ten Galleons you’re throwing down the drain, mate. There’s no way you’re beating me.”

Sirius opened his mouth to retort, but at that moment a familiar face popped out of the crowd.

“Where the hell’ve you lot been? We got off together and you just disappeared.” Remus’ brows were furrowed, the scars on his cheeks less prominent in the half light.

Jamie pointed at Sirius, “This one was so excited to see the ground again he took a dive out of the train.”

“Hey, the stairs were –”

Sirius didn’t get to finish his sentence. The dark figure had made it to the front of the gaggle of first years, who had ended the last year group to leave the platform, the self-drawn carriages (a lot of new students gasped and gawked at them, Remus included – Jamie and Sirius were just too wrapped up in their own drama to notice) having already left.

“Sorry yeh lot,” the dark mass said, stepping into the lamplight. “I was running a bit late. Had to feed the Skrewts fer old Professor Feingold… you know how it is.”

Sirius, however, was too enraptured by the sheer size of the man before him to bother himself with anything related to _‘Skrewts’_ or _‘Professor Feingold’_. The word _giant_ passed through his mind.

“Half-giant,” came a whisper behind him.

Startled, Sirius looked around abruptly. Remus was looking up at the man too, not with fascination, though – with respect.

“Half-giant?” he whispered back, leaning in closer to Remus.

“He must be,” Remus said, nodding. “He’s far too tall to be a human and nowhere near the size of a giant. So, he must be half.”

“He is,” Jamie whispered. “His name is Hagrid. My parents told me about him. He seems great from what they said.”

Sirius tilted his head to one side. “How would that work, though? With the height difference and all?”

Hagrid clapped his hands together loudly. “Right then. To the boats!”

_Boats?_

The weather was already dismal, and they were going to be taking _boats_ to the castle?

 _Awesome!_ Sirius thought. Jamie was taking a similar stance to the situation, turning it into an adventure, her fingertips brushing against the leaves as she stretched up towards them, following – like the rest of the group – Hagrid up the trail. Remus, however, was thinking that he had sorely underestimated the amount of warm clothes he was going to need to survive a year in Hogwarts. Especially if the first activity was travelling on unstable-looking dingy little boats across a huge ass lake.

He shivered.

* * *

Lily stared up at the castle, entranced by its lights and the stars behind it. She felt like she was in a fairy tale and she was going to wake up any moment now, all those afternoons with Severus by the river talking about magic, all the amazing places she had visited already, turning out to be exactly what her sister had called them.

Make-believe.

She pinched herself carefully. The castle was still there.

On the waves made by the boats was reflected the pale moon above, a half-crescent, nowhere near full just yet. It’s pale, watery duplicate shimmered as the water flowed on and on, unreal, yet constant. That was exactly how that moment felt to Lily.

She breathed out a happy sort of sigh, smiling, and, in the cold evening air, her breath formed a little cloud in front of her. Severus smiled at her and touched her hand, his face illuminated from one side by the lamplight.

“We’re here,” he breathed enthusiastically, his eyes wide. “We’re at Hogwarts!”

Lily mirrored his smile and glanced at him, before looking back at the castle. “It’s beautiful. Beats anything I’ve ever seen in the muggle world. Well, maybe not the pyramids.”

“The pyramids were probably built by wizards anyways,” he said.

“Who knows,” said Lily, not really knowing what else to say to the comment. She was pretty sure the pyramids were built by muggles but chose not to begin a discussion. The castle was too entrancing, and she was far too caught up in it.

The lamp bobbed a little as they hit a small current, but the boat did not waver. The two first years sharing the boat with them trailed their hands in the water and talked in hushed tones, but overall, the journey was mostly silent. Lily was sure that they were all feeling similarly to how she was. The towering castle had a way of making one feel so small and yet so important at the same time.

The boats hit the shore and the magic was broken.

What was previously a knot of silent first years was now a herd of rambunctious ones; racing each other up the stairs and pushing one another into the banisters to get ahead. Friends, both new and old, laughed loudly with one another and Lily found herself walking with Severus at the very back, trying to avoid the tussling.

A loud laugh sounded up ahead and Lily turned instinctively towards it, catching the eye of the girl she had met on the train.

 _Potter_.

Jamie caught her looking and grinned at her, her eyes shining with delight and exhilaration. Lily looked away quickly without returning the smile.

Jamie’s eyes lingered on her a moment longer and then she simply shrugged and went back to talking to that dark-haired boy – Sirius Black. There was another boy with them now, Lily noticed. He looked around at the portraits moving around in their painting (Lily was quite astounded by this, though she probably would’ve been more in awe had Severus not informed her of the phenomenon) with a small smile on his face, looking as though he was overjoyed to just _be_ there.

 _I wonder why he has those scars_ ….

The great doors ahead swung open and a tall, black-haired, stern looking woman walked through them.

Hagrid stopped and, following his lead, so did the first years (not that his wide girth gave them much of a choice). A few students bumped into him and fell promptly against their peers. Hagrid didn’t seem to feel a thing.

“The firs’ years, Professor McGonagall.”

Professor McGonagall turned to him and nodded curtly, “Thank you, Hagrid, I’ll take it from here.”

Hagrid gave her a small bow and pushed past the first years carefully, almost knocking a few of them over the banisters.

“Careful there – sorry, sorry, coming through…”

McGonagall watched him until he was out the doors and then turned to the small crowd of wide-eyed faces peering up at her. She folded her hands in front of her and began…

“I welcome all of you to Hogwarts. The start-of-term banquet will begin shortly, but before you may take your seats beside your older schoolmates, you must be sorted into your houses.” Sirius furrowed his eyebrows at this and became increasingly interested in the stone steps below. McGonagall paused a little for effect and then continued, “While you are in Hogwarts, your house will be something like your family. Though you are of course encouraged to interact with your peers from other houses, those from your own are likely to be who you spend most of your time with.

“The four houses are Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff and Slytherin; named after the people who founded them and, as you may know, this school. Each house has its own noble history and outstanding line of alumni. Your achievements will win you house points and points will in turn be taken away for your misdeeds. At the end of the year, the house with the most points will win the House Cup, a great honour. I believe each of you will be a credit to the house you end up in.

“The Sorting will begin in a few minutes. I’ll come back when we are ready for you.” McGonagall’s gaze lingered on them a couple moments longer and then she turned and left back through the great wooden doors, her green robes billowing behind her.

Sirius scrunched up his nose, “She seems intense.”

Remus nodded, fidgeting with the sleeve of his school robes absentmindedly. “She’s gonna be our Transfiguration teacher. And she’s Deputy Headmistress too.”

“You know, I’ve only known you for three hours, but you already seem like you know more about this place than my entire family put together.”

Remus shrugged, “I just read is all.”

“Where did you read that that lady’s our Transfiguration teacher?” Jamie said, mildly confused. Was that something she was supposed to know?

“I read it in a Transfiguration magazine a few months back.”

“Of course, a Transfiguration magazine. Silly me.”

Sirius shifted from foot to foot and glanced at the doors ahead nervously.

Trying to seem flippant, he said, “Where do you guys think you’re gonna end up.” He paused and added, “Really.”

Jamie followed his gaze and pushed her glasses further up her nose. “Gryffindor,” – a hint of uncertainty entered her tone, “I think.”

“You seem a whole lot less confident than before.”

“Well, I wasn’t here staring the sorting ceremony in the face before, was I?” she said defensively. “I dunno. All my dad’s family’s been in Gryffindor. I always reckoned I would be. I dunno what I’d do if I went anywhere else.”

“Well, my dad was in Ravenclaw,” Remus interjected. “Mum isn’t a witch, so she never went to Hogwarts. I guess I’ll go there, then. Anywhere’s fine, really,” he added quietly.

Sirius sighed. “Well, Gryffindor and Ravenclaw are great, aren’t they? All my folks’ve been in Slytherin. If it’s all inheritance, then that’s where I’m headed too.” He threw his hands in the air dramatically. “And then I’ll never get rid of my god-awful cousins and their stupid peacock boyfriends!”

Jamie shook her head, “Just tell the hat to go to hell, mate. _Refuse_ to be put in Slytherin.”

Remus raised his eyebrows, “I dunno if that’s how it works but yeah, sure, try it out.”

The great doors opened. The Sorting had started.

* * *

The Great Hall was alit with floating candles, it’s bewitched sky dotted with stars so bright one would wonder if the candles were even needed. The staff overlooked the shuffling crowd of first years from the head table, a stool set between them. Upon that stool, sat a hat.

It was an exceptionally old and weary-looking hat, appearing worn and poor even to Severus Snape, who wasn’t much of a rich boy himself. Even modest was an overstatement. No matter how many times his mother told him of the wonders of Hogwarts, no matter the amount of afternoons he spent convincing Lily Evans he knew the deepest darkest secrets of the place, Severus was in awe.

He didn’t gawk, like most others, but he most definitely gasped when he first stepped through the doors. He was so entranced by his surroundings he almost didn’t notice when the sorting had started, and the first name was called.

Jamie, however, for once took quite good notice.

“Black, Sirius!”

She watched vigilantly as her friend took his place on the stool, the hat falling across his eyes. Inside the sleeves of her robes her fingers were crossed, fixated so intently on the boy and the hat that Remus, who was standing beside her, became a little worried she would bust a vein.

 _Gryffindor. Come on, you dumb hat, choose Gryffindor_.

The hat took its time. A minute had passed already, and nothing seemed to be happening apart from Sirius’ face screwing up tighter and tighter, as if he, too, was fighting with the hat.

Jamie didn’t really understand why he didn’t want to be in Slytherin so much when his entire family had been, but she wasn’t about to complain. She was on his side, after all. She didn’t want her new best friend to be carted off to some snakes’ nest without her. Besides, it clearly meant a good deal to him, and so, in extension, it meant a good deal to her.

Finally, the hat opened its wide mouth.

“GRYFFINDOR!”

“Yes!” Jamie pumped a fist in the air, almost knocking into Remus, who – not understanding much either but seeing the excitement on their faces – was smiling and trying his best to clap like a normal person. She didn’t even care people were looking at her weird.

Sirius looked just as elated and waved to them as he ran to the Gryffindor table.

Students came and went. Lily was sorted at the start like Sirius and had barely sat on the stool for ten seconds before the hat yelled out: _GRYFFINDOR_. Sirius moved over to make space for her, and she took the space, albeit reluctantly. She hadn’t forgotten the incident on the train.

Remus, to his great surprise, was, too, sorted into Gryffindor.

Marlene McKinnon went into Ravenclaw.

Mulciber, Macnair… Slytherin.

Jenkins, Higgins, May, Moore… all Hufflepuff.

Finally, McGonagall reached ‘P’. To all three new Gryffindors’ great surprise, both ‘P’s ended up in Gryffindor. Jamie – the obvious candidate – ran straight from the stool to the table, almost knocking the hat off as she went. She high-fived Sirius and plopped herself down next to Lily, across from Remus, her face alight with happiness. The other ‘P’ – whose name they all learned was Peter Pettigrew – was a small, round boy, both in face and every other feature. He was small and watery-looking, happy and nervous at the same time.

When McGonagall reached ‘S’ and called Severus Snape’s name, Lily wasn’t looking. She had started talking to a girl across from her, Mary MacDonald she said her name was, who was a year above. Between that and being frustrated at Jamie for stepping on her foot earlier (which she _obviously_ knew was there and refused to admit), she had lost track of who was being sorted when. So, when Severus came up to the stool and glanced at the Gryffindor table for support – a thumbs up, maybe even just a smile – Lily was turned well around in the other direction.


	4. Jellybeans and Confusion

“Before the feast, a few words.”

Albus Dumbledore’s voice rang from the front of the Great Hall, his white beard shining a little yellow in the light of the hundreds of candles. He smiled down at the students, both new and old. The twinkle he was so infamous for shone brightly through his spectacles.

“After last year’s incidents I am obligated to remind all that the Forbidden Forest’s name is not meant ironically and _all_ students,” his gaze lingered on a red-headed sixth year grinning audaciously up at him and, despite himself, gave a small smile, “should stay well away from the woods unless expressly told otherwise.”

Sirius watched in curiosity as the red head, sitting just a few seats up, received a pat on the back from his mate beside him. He nudged Jamie and nodded at him. They shared a look. Remus’ gaze remained fixed on the Headmaster.

Dumbledore continued, “I must also introduce our newest Defence Against the Dark Arts professor, as after Professor Ingle’s… accident, he will, I am afraid, not be returning. Welcome, Professor Vanitas Happman.”

The Great Hall echoed with polite claps as Professor Happman rose tentatively out of his seat and gave a few brief bows in the direction of Dumbledore, the staff, and the students. Remus felt bad at how awkward he looked and cringed inwardly when he accidently spilled the goblet in front of him onto the table. He apologised profusely, cleaning it up quick, sitting back down. His face was as red as Lily’s hair.

Dumbledore waited calmly for him to sit, then addressed the students, “Now, as I am sure you have all been starved and parched by the journey, I will only say a few more words before the start of the banquet.” He clapped his hands together and the tassel on his hat jumped around. “Dig in!”

Remus blinked and missed it. The tables were suddenly full of the most delicious looking food he had seen in all his life (not that that was a very long time). He must have looked quite wide-eyed, because Jamie chuckled at him and nudged the golden-roasted potatoes towards him.

“You heard Dumbledore. Dig in. And stop staring around like that, your eyes might pop out.”

The red head next to her, who’s name Remus had yet to learn, piped up, “I don’t know _how_ you’re not amazed by all this. I mean – look at that guy!” The red head gestured up the table a ghost who was currently talking with some third years about their new lessons (“Care of Magical Creatures is quite amazing. I used to love those lessons when I came here as a lad…”), his head unhinged from his neck like a window or a door that Remus wished never to have to go through. The red head shook her head, flabbergasted, “What are the odds of being killed like that?”

Remus blinked, equally amazed, “Pretty small, I reckon. Would have had to have been a pretty blunt axe.”

“They might as well have just taken his whole head of,” said Jamie, scrunching her nose up.

Sirius, who had just finished piling his plate with food, laughed. “Yeah, must be a bummer, being _nearly_ headless for eternity.”

“He prefers not to be called that, actually.” An older student, the friend of that red head that had smiled so unthreatened at the Headmaster, was turned towards them. “I mean, everybody does, but if you don’t want to offend him, you can just call him Nick.”

Lily raised her eyebrows a smidge, “A ghost named Nick. Got it.”

The guy breathed out a little sigh of a laugh and his eyes roved the hall for a bit before landing back on the Gryffindor first years. He looked at them from the corner of his eye and smiled, “I’m Nathaniel Keys, by the way. And that idiot over there,” – he pointed at his red headed friend who was engaged in a furious thumb wars tournament with the girl across from him and dramatically mocked death when he lost, flopping himself onto the ground – “is one of your prefects. Bilius Weasley. Can’t guarantee he won’t make the situation worse if you ask him for help, though.”

“Oy, I heard that, Nat!”

“Go back to your thumb-fighting, you great buffoon!”

“Too late.” Bilius moved up the table, making a third year sitting next to them move over. “You’re our new first years, huh? Small class.”

They were, indeed, a small year. Whereas most of the time one year in a house meant about ten people, there was only five of them there. Peter, Sirius, Remus, Lily, and Jamie. Lily, thinking about Jamie and Sirius, doubted the small amount would diminish on the rowdiness.

“Why was Dumbledore looking at you when he was talking about the Forbidden Forest?” Sirius had been dying to ask him since Dumbledore’s speech had ended and his eyes shone with anticipation.

Bilius rubbed himself on the back of his neck sheepishly. “Oh, you caught that, huh?”

Jamie, as expectant as Sirius, said, “Pretty hard to miss.”

“I didn’t see anything,” said Lily, frowning.

Remus nodded, “Me neither. What were you doing in the Forbidden Forest?”

Peter Pettigrew, shocked into attention by the mention of the forest, stared with startled eyes at Bilius. “Why would you ever want to go there? I heard there’s bloodthirsty monsters in there! Werewolves! Centaurs!”

Remus flinched and looked down at his plate.

Jamie rolled her eyes. “Centaurs aren’t _bloodthirsty_. And you’d only run into a werewolf if you went there on the full moon. There’s plenty of time in between.”

Lily splayed her hands out in front of her, palms facing forward. “Woah hold up. Centaurs and werewolves _exist_? And they live in the forest _behind the school_?”

Peter gave her a funny look, “You don’t know that _werewolves_ exist?”

Remus was really hoping the conversation would swerve away from werewolves as soon as possible.

“It’s alright, loads of people don’t know before they come to Hogwarts,” said Bilius, giving Lily a smile. “You’re a muggleborn, right?”

Lily blinked and nodded, that same nervousness that she had felt before she had asked Severus if it mattered filling her stomach. Bilius simply nodded encouragingly.

“Don’t worry about that, you’ll catch on quite quick. There’s so much to learn that nobody has much of a head start, really,” he said and pointed at the girl Lily had been talking to, Mary MacDonald, who was currently pouring galleons of milk into her cup. “Mary’s muggleborn, and she does best in her class at Charms.”

Mary looked up. “Well, Flitwick’s great. How could someone learn from that guy and _not_ ace his class?”

A boy down the table lifted his head up from his scones, “Those of us trying not to fail Potions have it a little harder, MacDonald!”

“If you hadn’t gotten that detention with Slughorn last year you’d be fine, Frank!” she called back, cupping her hand to her mouth.

“Unlikely!”

Lily smiled at the exchange, but her expression turned to a worrisome one once she turned back towards Bilius and Nathaniel. “Isn’t it a little dangerous, though? Having centaurs and werewolves in the backyard?”

Nathaniel smirked. “Wouldn’t be Hogwarts without the risk.”

“You can say that again,” murmured Bilius, lifting his goblet to his lips. Peter stared at him with a panicked expression.

Remus glanced at Peter and his lips curled up encouragingly as the two older students turned away. “Don’t worry, Peter. He probably just means the moving staircases.” This did nothing to quell Peter’s worry and he instead stated fretting about how he was possibly going to get to class with the staircases moving about.

At least, thought Remus, he wasn’t thinking about werewolves anymore.

“Come on, Potter, catch it in your mouth – your mouth doesn’t mean the bloody floor! I thought you said you were good at this stuff!”

“Quaffles aren’t the same as bloody jellybeans, Sirius!”

“Same principle.”

“Don’t throw it at my glasses, idiot!”

Remus peered at the ground beneath Jamie and Sirius. “Watch where you’re throwing those beans, you lot. Might as well empty that whole box on the floor at this rate.”

“Well, it wouldn’t _be_ on the floor if Jamie knew where her bloody mouth was!”

“Oh, shut it. I can do it this time. Come on, throw me one more.”

The red jellybean ended up on the floor. So did the next ten of them.

Remus sighed, but smiled.

He caught his jellybean on the first try.

* * *

Lily fidgeted in her seat. She kept glancing at the Slytherin table, wishing to catch Severus’ eye, but he kept his face turned either towards the table or at the blond boy to his left. A prefect, by the looks of his badge. She bit the inside of her cheek.

She was seriously considering going up to Dumbledore and asking him to let her change houses. After all, they had had it all planned out! They would go to Hogwarts together, get sorted in a house together, attend class together, graduate together. _Together_. And now they were separated.

She had asked Mary if changing houses was possible and mentioned the situation with Severus, but she had just given her a sorry sort of look.

“I don’t really know, no one’s ever tried before. When the hat puts you in a house, I suppose – I suppose that’s where you stay.”

Lily hadn’t liked that answer.

She would be spending most of her time with her housemates, that’s what McGonagall had said. And since then, she’d learned she would be having most classes with them, too. Only them. Sirius, Jamie, Remus, Peter, and her.

Remus didn’t seem that bad. Peter seemed quite shy and quiet and he squeaked nervously whenever she spoke to him, but he didn’t seem terrible. Sirius and Jamie, though… her mind jumped to the train. Her first impressions weren’t too great.

 _And they made fun of Severus_.

Her gaze wandered back to the green banners above the Slytherin table and her best friend, sitting sullenly beneath them. Her heart dropped to her stomach.

The blond boy turned back to Severus again, and from her vantage point Lily could see him whisper something lowly to him. Severus lifted his head to answer and, as he did, locked eyes with Lily. She gave him a small smile and raised her arm in a wave. A ghost of a smile crept over his face and she saw his arm twitch upwards, but as soon as the motion began, it stopped. A stricken look came across him and he looked quickly away from her, staring intently at the chicken nuggets set in the middle of the table.

The momentary elation Lily had felt dripped away and she turned back to her own table, downcast.

Lucius Malfoy followed Severus’ gaze and fixated on Lily’s red hair. He looked curiously from her back, to Severus, wondering….

* * *

Lily stood in the doorway, facing Jamie. The latter was already sitting on one of the two beds in the dormitory, her shoes thrown onto the floor, her trunk laying open and half-unpacked.

Mary had been showing Lily around the dormitories first, showing her the balcony at the top of the tower and the funny loose brick in the middle of the staircase. So, Jamie entered the dormitory first. Staring at her, leaning over the bed to pull stuff out of her trunk, it occurred to Lily for the very first time that she would be living with her for the next seven years.

She nearly groaned. _Nearly_.

“Where were you?” Jamie seemed to have only just noticed her and was studying her curiously. The moon shone brightly through the open window. The view they got of the stars, however, was just a fraction of the dome on display in the Great Hall. There was something in the way Jamie was looking so intently at her that made Lily feel strange. Not confused or uneasy, just strange.

“Why are you looking at me like that?”

Jamie grinned and threw what had to be her pyjamas onto her pillow. “Answering a question with another question. Classy.”

Lily rolled her eyes and went over to her own trunk. Jamie started humming and the unmelodious sound churned up the dormant emotions that Lily already had about Severus and that entire day in general.

Her grip on her socks tightened in irritation.

This was going to be a _long_ year.


	5. Hogwarts is Hard

The windowsill was cold, and so was the night. Not cold enough, however, that all windows needed be closed twenty-four hours of the day. Not cold enough that she wouldn’t consider sitting there, her leg dangling out above a hundred-foot drop, her hand propped up on her knee.

The warm air turned the cold of the windows into mist, making them translucent, then opaque, and yet Jamie stayed there, perched like bird before flight, thinking.

Well, not thinking, really. What she was doing, what was flashing through her brain, would be better described as dreaming, wondering. A fuzzy feeling spanned her body as she stared out into the night sky, making colourful images come alive in her brain – the abstract sort of thoughts one got when sleep eluded them long enough.

Hogwarts. She was here.

She always knew that she would be, but only now, the vast forest before her and the ancient castle below, was it truly hitting her. She buzzed with energy, suddenly feeling very much like a firework, imagining the magic coursing through her like those purple unicorns, only red, and yellow, and green, and pink – all the colours that her mind could dream up racing through her veins.

She hadn’t felt that sort of exhilaration on the boats.

The Sorting hadn’t done it either.

Only now, left alone with herself, her ginger roommate sleeping peacefully across the room, did it all come washing over her, as sure as the stars blinking back at her from the dark, dark sky.

The snitches on her pyjama pants rippled with the breeze. Lily gave a little snore.

Swinging her other leg over the windowsill – bracing herself against her arms – Jamie leaned out, her eyes closed.

She breathed in deeply, not even a little afraid she’d fall.

* * *

The next morning was chaos in the Gryffindor dormitory. The second years, third year and fourth years (who had no reason for being up for early breakfast and as such didn’t intend to be) woke up to the sound of Sirius Black smashing against the tower wall like a rat flung at a window.

Remus and Peter stood by the portrait hole, having jumped quickly out of the way when their roommate came flying towards them. Peter had his hands up in a fighting stance, eyes screwed shut.

“Uuugh.” Sirius sat up, crossing his legs. He glared at the stairs. “WHY DO YOU HATE ME?”

“SHUT UP! people are trying to sleep here!”

The voice from above was interrupted by a tired drawl, “Give it up Jeoffrey. This is Hogwarts; sleep is a foreign concept.”

Sirius pulled a face in the voices’ direction, then went back to his brooding. “You think I could run up them?”

Remus blinked, “I’m sorry, did you just _miss_ how the stairs bucked and sucker punched you into a wall?”

“Well yeah, but maybe if I was fast enough….”

“Can’t we just go to breakfast?” Peter squeaked, eyeing the stairs warily. Having Sirius Black aggressively flung at him was quite enough morning excitement. He was already mentally adding the stairs to the list of things to tell his sister to watch out for. And, in extension, himself.

Remus nodded, glancing from the stairs to Sirius, “Peter’s right. Come on, Sirius. Jamie’ll catch up to us.”

Sirius sighed and ceded, following the other two out of the portrait hole. Before he left, however, he took one last vengeful look at the stairs.

 _I will conquer you one day_.

“Sirius?”

“Coming!”

He jogged after them, turning on his heel and walking backwards.

“You do know there are booby-traps everywhere in here, right?” said Remus.

“It’s good to view things from a new perspective. I’m counting on you lot to guide me,” Sirius answered, studying the ceiling and the walls and the suits of armour they passed on the way. “Hey, you think –”

He didn’t get to finish his sentence. He had stepped back and, suddenly, the ground wasn’t there anymore. His foot trod into empty space and Sirius flailed back. He had no time to process, just that the ground wasn’t there, and he was going to become a Sirius-shaped grease stain on the floor of the castle.

 _At least mother won’t have to deal with her son being a Gryffindor_.

And then, he didn’t. A surprisingly strong arm gipped his own and he was shocked back to reality. Remus pulled him back to the landing, the both of them falling to the ground, panting.

Peter leaned over the edge cautiously. He looked down at the two boys on the floor.

“So, maybe walking backwards _isn’t_ a great idea?”

“Shut up, I was distracted,” grumbled Sirius, pushing himself up off the ground. That was the third time he had tripped/fallen/been smashed into the floor in less than twenty-four hours. He shook himself off and offered a hand to Remus, who gladly accepted it. “Thanks for catching me.”

“As long as I’m good for something,” Remus said, raising an eyebrow. His lips quirked up slightly. “Pay better attention, yeah? Dunno how I’d explain that my dumb roommate managed to fling himself off the stairs on his first day.”

“If I die from incorrect commuting, ghost me’ll be sure to explain you had nothing to do with it.” 

Remus gave him a sort of quasi-grin and they looked back out over the drop, waiting for the staircase to come swinging back.

But Sirius walked the rest of the way the right way around, trying not to dwell on the thought that had entered his mind as he dangled over the precipice.

* * *

They had made a grave mistake not letting the crowds lead them to the Great Hall. Over the course of their journey, they made exactly twenty-five wrong turns, met twelve dead ends (five of those being the courtesy of Peeves’ expert guidance), and rammed into ten walls pretending – maliciously – to be doors. By the time they stumbled their way into the Great Hall, it was already packed with students.

Jamie was there already, turned around in her seat, talking to a first year Ravenclaw whose name Sirius didn’t remember. The girl had blonde curls and focused eyes and was gesturing vaguely about as if she was swatting flies.

“You’re already here,” said Peter, a defeated expression on his face. “We set out before you, how are you already here?”

“I’d reckon our acute navigation skills may have had something to do with it,” Remus murmured, sinking into his seat, and lumping scrambled eggs onto his plate.

Jamie smirked at them, turning around, “I just went with all the other people. Dunno where you lot were wandering.”

“Neither do we, and we were there,” groaned Sirius. He flung himself into the seat next to her. Jamie shook her head and snorted, taking a sip of pumpkin juice.

The Ravenclaw eyed them with interest, then glanced at Jamie, “Who’re these people?”

“A bunch of dunderheads.”

Sirius glared at Jamie, who winked. He pulled a face in return.

Remus, seeing that proper introductions weren’t going to happen with those two on the job, stepped in.

“I’m Remus Lupin,” he said, then gestured at the other two. “And that’s Peter Pettigrew and Sirius Black.”

The girl smiled, cocking an eyebrow, “Marlene McKinnon. You’re the rest of first year Gryffindor, right?”

“Yep. You’ve met Lily already?”

Jamie nodded, swirling the juice around in her goblet. “She’s just over there getting tea.”

They looked up the table to see that Lily Evans, was, in fact, getting tea. She seemed so invested in the activity, actually, that she had started up what seemed to be a lengthy discussion with Mary MacDonald and some of her friends, including, as the other four-fifths of first year Gryffindor would soon find out, Pandora Jenkins, and Naomi Brown. Between that and looking wistfully over at the Slytherin table, Lily didn’t seem to be coming back any time soon.

Peter caught the motion and looked confused. “Why does she keep looking over at the Slytherins like that?”

“She’s watching for Severus Snape, I guess,” said Sirius, his eyes narrowing.

Jamie adopted a similar expression to Peter. “Who?”

“The guy from the train.”

“Oooh.” Realisation spread over her face. Then the confusion was back. “Wait, you know him?”

Marlene looked even more confused, as did Remus and Peter. They hadn’t, after all, been there to see the exchange between the three Gryffindors and Severus.

She looked between Jamie and Sirius. “Who?”

“That one over there, with the long hair that reflects all the candles in the Great Hall, probably,” Sirius snickered. “And yeah, I know him. Our families don’t talk, but his mum’s my mother’s cousin.” He murmured something else under his breath that sounded suspiciously like ‘ _slimy git_ ’.

Jamie remembered this and stored it alongside the train incident. Sirius didn’t seem to like Severus Snape much and he knew him so, before proven otherwise, this was the information she’d go on. In any case, Snape wasn’t building himself the prettiest picture in her brain.

* * *

Lily hurried down the corridor after breakfast, eyes fixed on the group of Slytherins before her, or – more specifically – on a small dark-haired boy hovering on its edge.

“Sev!” she called once she was within range. Severus caught her eye but looked away just as fast.

“Who is this, Snape? Your girlfriend?” said one of the Slytherin boys with him; a dark-haired, sharp faced boy – his lips curled into a permanent sneer.

Lily paid him no heed. “Sev, I need to speak to you.”

“Not now, Lily,” murmured Severus, gaze locked on the ground.

“Don’t ‘not now’ me,” she retorted, frowning. The other Slytherins threw out a few more teasing comments and Snape, realising she wasn’t going to let it go, reluctantly moved a little away from the group into a side alcove to offer them some privacy. “You haven’t spoken to me at all since the Sorting. Is it because I was sorted into Gryffindor, not Slytherin? They’re just colours, Sev, it’s not like we can’t still be friends.” Her voice got quite quiet to the end and it was now her that looked away.

Severus shuffled uncomfortable. He peered up at her and felt a pang of guilt at her expression. It shone with hurt and loneliness, and perhaps just a bit of anger, too. She wasn’t the only one who was hurt, however. She hadn’t even bothered to glance at him when he had sat down on that stool the other night. He was justified in being angry. After all, when it had been her with that hat on her head he had stood at full attention, beaming up at her encouragingly all the way. Until she had gotten sorted into Gryffindor, that was.

It wasn’t how she said it was. Houses weren’t just colours. The differences between them were huge, they were separate identities even. And Gryffindors – well – Gryffindors simply couldn’t co-exist with Slytherins, everybody knew that. Besides that, the Slytherins were sure to find out that she was muggleborn soon and Severus had, prior to coming to Hogwarts, sorely underestimated the pushback their friendship would get from his housemates. How could he possibly explain to them that Lily was an exception? That she wasn’t as stupid and ignorant as other muggleborns? It wouldn’t do. If they found out, he would be finished. But Lily would never understand that.

“You didn’t watch my Sorting,” he said, finally. “You ignored me through the whole first half of the feast!”

Lily blinked at his outburst then, guiltily, realised he was right. She had been so caught up in her own stuff she had forgotten to support her best friend. She bit her lower lip and, after a brief pause, looked back at him.

“I’m sorry, Severus,” she said sincerely. “I got so distracted by all the novelty of it that I lost track of everything. I didn’t mean to forget about you, and I’m really, really sorry, but please, don’t ignore me like this. I don’t want us to stop talking just because of one little thing. We’ve known each other for so long – it would be silly.”

Severus couldn’t resist it. She seemed so sad and her eyes shone so bright in the dark of the alcove. Something tingly welled up in his stomach.

_Maybe I’ll be able to keep her a secret after all. Shouldn’t be too hard, right?_

Yes, a secret. He wouldn’t _let_ them find out she was a muggleborn and he get to keep his friendship with her and be accepted in his house both.

“You’re right,” he said abruptly, shocking himself out of his own thoughts. “I’m sorry I ignored you.”

He smiled at her. She smiled back – relief evident in her eyes. The snag in their friendship seemed to have weighed on her quite a bit.

The bell rang, startling them, and they exchanged apologetic smiles before saying goodbye and running off to their very first classes.

* * *

McGonagall stood at the front of the class, staring at the door, her lips pressed into a thin line. Lily, Remus, and Peter were, so far, the only ones there, Remus and Peter headed out before Jamie and Sirius, who insisted they had something of great importance to do. Remus recalled how long it had taken them to get to the Great Hall and opted not to take any chances and Peter, whose first encounter with something that was ‘of great importance’ to either of them having ended with Sirius being flung into a wall by a staircase, wasn’t all too pumped to join whatever craziness they had planned this time.

Especially since it was the first class.

Especially since the teacher of that first class was Minerva McGonagall.

Another minute ticked by and McGonagall grew tired of waiting. She checked her list, marked _Jamie Potter_ and _Sirius Black_ as absent and made her way to the chalkboard where she wrote –

“WE’RE HERE! We’re here!”

The door slammed open and Jamie and Sirius ran in, flinging themselves into the nearest desk they could find. Their clothes were crumpled, and Sirius’ hair was in disarray (so was Jamie’s but no one could really tell the difference with her anyways).

McGonagall set the chalk back on her desk, her lips pursed.

“Miss Potter, Mister Black. Where have you two been?”

Jamie fidgeted with her sleeve sheepishly and met McGonagall’s fearsome gaze. “We – um – we got lost.”

Sirius nodded vigorously. “Also, a staircase attacked us.”

Remus nearly smacked his forehead onto his desk.

“Well,” McGonagall started, not at all appeased by their answers, “whatever the case for your tardiness may be, you should make sure it doesn’t happen again. Transfiguration –” She was looking around at all of them now – “is some of the most complex and dangerous magic you will learn here at Hogwarts. Messing around is not tolerated and anyone not taking their education here seriously may leave and not come back. That is all.”

She looked around at the class of five students, all of which were now staring up at her in complete silence. The effect was half of the reason why she made that speech.

“Very well.” She turned back towards the blackboard. “We shall start by turning matches into needles.”

By the end of the class only Remus, Lily and Jamie had turned their matches into needles (though Jamie technically turned hers two seconds after the bell rang, so Sirius argued it didn’t really count). Sirius and Peter got theirs as homework, which Sirius didn’t stop whining about until the rest of the teachers had assigned them all homework and one small needle didn’t end up making such a difference.

“Who knew magic could be so hard?” Jamie whined, dragging her feet up the stairs, her overflowing bag slung over her shoulder.

Sirius sighed, “You don’t have to do that needle stuff for McGonagall. How did you guys even do it? I could barely get mine to go pointy.”

“Don’t ask me, I just copied Remus. Reckon it was just dumb luck I managed to do it.”

“At least _something_ happened to yours!” cried Peter, flinging his arms out. “Mine just shimmered weirdly!” He turned to Remus desperately, pausing on the landing (he would’ve paused a step below but was reminded of Sirius’ earlier fall and opted to go for the safer option). “How do you do it?”

Remus adjusted his bag strap and smiled self-consciously at him. “I just pay attention, Pete. And I read the material related to what we were doing, too. You did alright, really, you just have to focus more.”

“Focus more, focus more, focus more,” mumbled Peter under his breath, starting down the corridor.

Sirius gestured around wildly with his hand, almost knocking the helmet off of a nearby suit of armour. “How am I supposed to focus when there’s so much more interesting stuff going on? I can’t just keep thinking on one thing, that’s impossible!”

Jamie mumbled her assent, exclaiming loudly as the contents of her bag spilled out onto the floor. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

Remus paused and knelt down to pick up some of her spare papers, lining them up to each other neatly. “How about we do the homework together tonight? Then we can all help each other with the things we don’t understand. We can meet up at our dormitory.”

Sirius grinned, “Sounds great. You’re a lifesaver mate, really.” He looked over at Jamie, who was now ramming her notes and textbooks in her bag with such ferocity one would worry she would punch right through it. “Oy, you think you’ll be able to get up to our dormitory without the stairs bucking you off?”

Jamie grabbed the bag off the ground. “Course I will. Just tell me when.” She switched shoulders, grimacing as she massaged the one that was holding the bag up before. “Next year, remind me to get a backpack. This thing is killing me.”

* * *

Far below the three Gryffindors, in a part of the castle so similar, yet so completely different, Severus Snape peered through the banister of the stairs leading to the Slytherin boys’ dormitories.

Flames crackled in the hearth, the coals beneath them red hot and shining, spitting sparks out of the fireplace – not enough to cause a fire, but enough that the ones closest to the hearth were seated safely on the couch, peering intently into the flames. The rest were focused on Lucius Malfoy, who stood before the gathering, his grey eyes searching yet focused, in his hands a yellow envelope.

The Knights of Montgomery had assembled. And Severus Snape was bearing witness.


	6. Wingardium Leviosa

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello :)  
> To any of those who may have read the previous chapter before 10th of January, there have been some edits made to the chapter that are vital to the happenings of this one, so check it out before you proceed.

The grooves in the stairs dug patterns into the soles of Severus’ feet as he clutched the banister, peering through the poles, eyes wide.

Through a gap between the sofa and the armchair he could see the fire and the blackened wood beneath in, the flames licking up the pieces and scattering them around in greyish-white flakes. Lucius’ hair was lit from behind, making it seem like a bright white halo, the rest of him thrust into darkness.

The ends of Severus’ fingers tingled with nerves. Had Lucius not told him of the meeting he wouldn’t have been sitting there at all, observing the meeting from afar – invisible. That was what he had to be. First years weren’t regularly permitted to join the Knights of Montgomery, and the rules weren’t about to be bent for him. Lucius Malfoy had simply offered him an olive branch, a bridge.

Because of his mother.

The last of the gathering settled down and Severus’ ears pricked up as Lucius Malfoy began to speak.

“I welcome you all here today, to our first meeting this year. All that have worked with us in the past, I welcome back, and all that came eager to join our cause, I believe you will be a valuable asset.” He paused for a moment, scanning the room, taking in the people around him, memorising – Severus was sure – their faces. “I am sure you all know why we are here. The Dark Lord has mobilised us; we act as his eyes and ears in Hogwarts and practice his will where he deems necessary. The Dark Lord is not someone to take lightly and this is the year where our efforts will become vital to his plans within the castle.” He turned to a blonde sitting in the armchair to his left, a watch clutched in her hand. “Narcissa?”

“Ten seconds.”

He nodded and fixed his eyes on the face of the watch, reflecting the orange glow of the fireplace.

Severus’ gaze, however, was drawn to the flames of the hearth. They had started to swirl and flicker inconsistently, bending to the right and left as if attacked by a gust of wind. Blotches of darkness and light began to mould within the constant movement. A final flurry of motion swirled the flames around – strongly resembling a whirlpool or tornado. Then everything went still.

Severus gripped the banister tighter, his breath hitching in his throat. A chill ran up his spine – everything from his gut to his nerves screaming in alarm. Among the smouldering timber, carved from flame and ash, sat the face of Lord Voldemort.

The highest and softest of whispers pierced through the air in the Slytherin dormitory, making Severus double check that the Dark Lord wasn’t sitting right next to him. “Lucius.”

Lucius Malfoy whirled around and dropped into a kneel, his face almost level with Voldemort’s. “My Lord. I have received your message and done as you said. We are ready to put the plan in motion.”

“And you will. But not yet.”

Lucius’ brow furrowed in confusion. “B – but we have everything we need. There is no use in waiting.”

Voldemort’s eyes flashed, his voice all the more waspish. Severus would have preferred he had started yelling instead. “Do you question my judgement, Lucius?”

“N – no sir. I apologise, I spoke out of turn.” Lucius’ eyes remained fixed on the ground. Voldemort’s lips curled into a satisfied sneer and his gaze searched the gathering, pausing on a few faces, before fixating back on Lucius.

“You did. However, I am merciful enough to let it slide this time. Do not question me, Lucius. I know much more than any of you could ever dream.” He spoke now not only to Lucius Malfoy, but to the Knights of Montgomery as a whole, his eyes flashing from one face to the next. “I recognise your restlessness and reward the loyalty of all those who had gathered here today to receive me. You will soon have a job to do for me, I promise that. You are the future of this world, soldiers for our noble cause, and your efforts will not be forgotten.” He paused, letting the message sink in. Once he was satisfied with the length of the silence, he continued, turning back to Lucius, expression unchanged. “You will lead them on this, Lucius. You have given me good information in the past and I trust you not to fail me. Do not make me regret casting you into my service.”

The flames enveloped him and, just like that, Voldemort was gone.

* * *

Sirius threw his wand down with a huff, lying spread eagled on the common room floor. It was lunchbreak, which also happened to be right after Charms, during which they had been trying to get feathers to fly around like Flitwick had the lesson prior.

Jamie, who – it turned out – didn’t need to trick the stairs to the boys’ dormitory to get up at all and could simply walk up as she pleased, was sitting on Remus’ bed, frowning down at her feather, and muttering the incantation under her breath. Her feather had so far done nothing more than twitch upwards.

“I got it! I got it!” Peter’s feather glided up into the air. Remus, sitting beside him, a Charms book open in his lap, smiled up at it. “ _Wingardium Leviosa!_ Blimey, I got it!”

“Good going, Pete,” said Remus, snapping the book shut.

Jamie looked up, the feather now floating very close to the ceiling. “Yeah, great job, mate.” She sighed down at her motionless feather and flicked her wrist half-heartedly. “ _Wingardium Leviosa._ ”

“You’ve gotta swish too, Jamesie, remember?” murmured Sirius from below. “Where do you think we are, Slack Off Station?”

“Says the guy whose wand is lying two feet away from him.”

Remus scoffed and shook his head, pushing himself up off the bed. He sat down on the floor, facing Jamie. “He’s right, you know. You haven’t been swishing enough.”

“I’ve been swishing plenty! The bloody feather must be broken.” Jamie muttered the incantation again, swishing her wand around exaggeratedly to prove her point.

Taking his wand out, Remus said, “No, see, you’re not swishing it right. You can’t just swish your whole arm around like a swing; the motion is all in the wrist.” He swished and flicked his wrist, focusing his wand. “ _Wingardium Leviosa._ ” Jamie’s feather floated up, hovering about the canopy then falling back down when he released the charm.

Peter prodded his wand forward a bit, making his feather sail across the room like a hockey puck. Jamie’s eyes followed it.

“Alright, fine. Show me the wrist thing again?” she said, her eyes set determinedly on her target.

Remus moved over to her and began to recapitulate what Flitwick had told them during the lesson.

The door slammed open.

“Nathaniel! Has any of you guys seen Nathaniel?” Frank Longbottom stood in the doorway; his hair looking as if it had been blown half a million different directions.

Sirius sat up, smirking. “What happened to you?”

“What do you mean?”

“You look a little mad,” said Peter. He had run the length of the room to retrieve his feather, which, it turned out, did not work like a boomerang and, despite his many attempts didn’t seem to want to come back to him.

Frank scratched his arm. “Quidditch try-outs are today and Nathaniel’s captain and I couldn’t try out in first year so I’m doing it now, but I can’t find him anywhere! No one can! It’s like he’s sunken into the ground! Disappeared! Bilius is half a minute away from just running the try-outs himself.”

“ _Wingardium Leviosa!_ Yes! Remus you’re a genius.”

Sirius turned towards her – eyes wide. “Well bloody hell, it can’t seriously be _that_ easy.” Jamie smirked in response.

“Lot, I kind of have a situation over here,” said Frank, waving a hand around to get their attention. “Did you see Nathaniel anywhere, then?”

“We could help you find him,” Sirius suggested. He grabbed his wand from the floor and stood up. “The more the better, right?”

Remus looked around, confused. “Wait, what’s going on?”

“Frank’s going to try-outs, but Nathaniel’s captain and they can’t find him anywhere,” said Peter, filling him in.

Jamie’s eyes widened at this. “He’s not at try-outs? But he’s captain!”

“Yeah! That’s the point!” exasperated Frank. “So, are you gonna help me, or what? ‘Cause we’re kinda running on a schedule here!”

“We’re coming, we’re coming,” said Sirius, moving towards the door. “Where do you want us to look?”

“Could you cover second floor for me?”

“Sure thing.”

“Thanks.” Frank did a funny little bow-nod-thing and ran back out the door, pounding down the stairs like a crazed elephant.

* * *

Jamie trudged down the corridor, Sirius at her side. They had been looking for Nathaniel so long and so hard, they had managed to get themselves lost. Not that she would ever admit it.

“I think the dormitories are this way.” She ran around a corner and came face to face with the same tapestry they had passed just ten minutes ago.

Sirius came to a stop beside her, shoulders drooping. “Yeah, we’ve definitely seen that one before.” He looked up and down the corridor, then turned back to study the tapestry, grimacing at the grotesque-looking trolls in tutus. “Are we sure we’re even on the right floor?”

“We’ve got to be,” Jamie said, brow furrowed. “We haven’t gone up any stairs or anything.”

“Merlin, this castle is tripping me up.” He ran his hand down his face. “You know what would be mighty handy right now? A map.”

Jamie’s lips quirked up at that, her eyes catching the light, making them seem almost green for a moment. “We could make one. Imagine the galleons future first years would pay for something like that?”

“We could make it tell us where people are, too. So that we wouldn’t have to keep running around after stupid Quidditch captains who can’t keep track of their own try-out times.”

“Genius.” Her eyes twinkled at the notion. “Then we could know where Filch is, and McGonagall, and Dumbledore, and everyone. We’d never get caught at anything ever again!”

They set off, turning away from the ballet-dancing trolls. They had a free period right after lunch that day, which was lucky, because – lost or not – they probably wouldn’t’ve thought to keep track of time anyways. Especially not for the sake of Potions or Slughorn.

They rounded a corner and, before she had time to process what was happening, Jamie found herself shunted against the wall by Sirius. He placed a finger in front of his mouth and, eyes wide, gestured at the doorway on their left. They were pressed against a wall just a foot away from McGonagall’s office, the light inside flickering out onto the corridor through the crack in the door, casting a long stripe of light down the stone floor.

McGonagall was out on the pitch watching over try-outs, and the voices coming from inside definitely didn’t belong to her.

“Pass me the powder, Avery. Hurry up, he is waiting.” A muffled wheeze of pain followed the hurried instructions. Someone shuffled across the carpeted office floor. Jamie heard porcelain.

A fire blazed up. Silence.

“You are late.”

The voice was like silk and danger. It was as if ice had been given a voice. Jamie’s blood ran cold – she heard Sirius’ breath go uneven.

“My Lord, I couldn’t contact you before now. We couldn’t use the common room fire again – one of the professors was suspicious of what we had been doing. It was too risky.”

“And you are alone?” The voice was soft, inquisitive.

“Yes, my Lord.”

“You are wrong.”

Jamie forgot how to breath.

“No, my Lord, there is nobody else here. I checked profusely –”

The voice let out a breathy chuckle, cutting the other off. “Oh, Lucius, you know nothing. Come, join us, little eavesdroppers. Lord Voldemort knows you’re there.”

Sirius stumbled back, pushing against Jamie. “Go. Go, go, go, go, go.”

Hurried footsteps neared the door and it slammed open, the face of Narcissa Black peering out into the hallway. She looked to the left and Jamie, shocked out of her paralysis, kicked Narcissa hard in the ankle.

Narcissa yelped in pain and began to turn around to face her attacker, stumbling over her bruised leg.

Mind groping around for anything that would get them out of this mess, Sirius pulled his wand out and, swishing and flicking as well as he possibly could, yelled, “ _Wingardium Leviosa!_ ”

In a crazy stroke of luck, it worked. Narcissa hovered of the ground, unbalanced, and the two first years wasted no more time. They bounded around the corner, panting up and down the corridors, skidding past classroom and tapestries they had never before seen. On the fifth floor a disgruntled looking Filch yelled after them to stop, but the two paid him no heed. They didn’t stop until they had reached the steps leading to the portrait of the Fat Lady, where they doubled over, chests heaving.

Once they had calmed down a bit, Jamie looked a up at Sirius. “I can’t believe that worked,” she said. “Bloody hell – I can’t believe that worked.”

Sirius glanced at the Fat Lady, who was pretending to be looking herself over in the mirror and peering at them from the corner of her eye. “I _Wingardium Leviosa_ -ed my cousin.”

“The look on her face,” Jamie half-grinned. “Damn good timing for your Charms talent to show itself.”

They went silent for a moment, processing what had happened – what they had heard.

“Who was that?” Sirius’ voice was uncharacteristically quiet. “Who is Voldemort?”

Jamie gulped, remembering the icy voice in the office. “Whoever he is, he doesn’t sound good. Why would your cousin be speaking to someone like him?”

Sirius scoffed, waving a hand in dismissal. “My cousins are crazy – well, Andy’s okay, but the rest of them are just nuts.”

“Right.” Her eyes travelled the length of the staircase, biting her lip. “They – they sounded like they were planning something, didn’t they? Now, I’m just shooting into the dark here, but what if that something isn’t entirely _good_?”

Following her gaze, Sirius said, “Well, as witnesses, we’d be bound to try to stop it, then, wouldn’t we?”

Their eyes met. The bell rang.

Sirius smacked his forehead. “Merlin! We’re late for Potions.”

They pounded up the stairs and disappeared into the common room, thoughts of the mysterious Lord Voldemort looming ominously in the far corners of their minds.

* * *

The cauldron bubbled, the liquid glowing a luminescent green.

“Oh no.” Peter searched in the book frantically, trying to figure out what her had done wrong. Remus had left to go get the wrackspurt liver. “I cut it right. I must – oh.” His spirits sank and he looked at the book defeatedly. He hadn’t put the cauldron off the fire before adding the leaves.

A table away, Jamie and Sirius were looking very distracted, their potion about five shades away from what it was supposed to be, its contents bubbling up and spilling over the top in a hot, turquoise mess.

Peter waved over to them. “Um, guys? Your potion is leaking out.”

“What?” Jamie looked over at it absentmindedly. “Oh, holy hell! Sirius, help me out over here!”

“Sweet crumb biscuits!” Sirius grabbed some spare gloves and started trying to scoop the potion back in.

Peter smiled over at them, then returned to his own little problem. Praying to all and any gods that existed, he put the fire out and sprinkled a few more leaves on top. The potion acquired a pearly texture. Peter sighed.

“Hey, I got the – what the hell happened here?” Remus dumped the wrackspurt liver on the table and hurried over to the cauldron.

Peter looked at him apologetically. “I didn’t put it off the fire.” He rubbed his neck. “Can you fix it?”

“I don’t know. Hold up, I’ll try finding it in here.” Remus flipped through _One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi_ ; brow furrowed.

Around the room, the other Gryffindor and Slytherin first years were experiencing similar troubles. Slughorn fussed over them, giving hurried instruction to struggling students, sometimes grimacing, or adopting a particularly panicked expression when someone managed to mess their potion up particularly badly. In fact, the only pair of students that seemed completely immune to the chaos of the classroom, were Lily Evans and Severus Snape, their potion the perfect shade of army green.

“They seem to be doing well,” said Peter, pointing them out to Remus.

The latter looked up from fussing over the potion, observing the way the other pair worked in perfect flow, not a mistake in their procedure. He glanced back to their own neon mess. “Wait here.”

Wiping his hands on a cloth hung from a hook on the table, Remus edged past the cramped desks and seats, making his way to the only people in the room who looked like they knew what was going on.

Lily had just finished cutting up the wrackspurt liver and was now carefully sprinkling in the little berry-like thingies found inside it. Severus scowled at Remus as he approached, coming to a stop right in front of their cauldron.

Lily looked up in surprise, dusting her hands off. “Remus! Do you need anything?”

“Peter and I made a bit of a mistake. We were hoping you could help us with it.”

She blinked. “Me?”

The corners of Remus’ lips quirked up and he gestured to their cauldron. “Well, unlike us, you look like you know what you’re doing.”

“Why didn’t you ask Slughorn? He’s supposed to be helping with this stuff. We still have a lot to do here,” Severus interjected. To his credit, he was right. There were at least ten more steps to the potion and the class now had shy of twenty minutes to complete them.

Remus looked around. A minor explosion had occurred on the other side of the class, red liquid splattered over the shelves and floor. Slughorn was fussing over the mess, his face equally red – though whether it was from the potion or stress we may never know – as one of the girls who had been at the station led her friend, covered completely in a violent rash, out of the class.

He turned back around. “He looked a little busy.”

Severus glanced towards Slughorn. Admittedly, he wouldn’t have wanted to ask the professor for help at that moment either.

“It’s alright Sev. You can finish up over here and I’ll go help the boys, okay?” said Lily, smiling at him. Severus smiled back and nodded mutely, going back to work, scooping the last of the wrackspurt liver berries into the potion before consulting the list.

Lily and Remus made their way back to an anxious Peter and the luminous green potion, which had now begun to send of purple fumes into the air, creating its own personal cloud above the workplace.

“Well, that doesn’t look good.”

Peter sighed, prodding at the potion with the ladle dejectedly. “You’re telling me.”

“Can you do anything with it?” asked Remus, looking to Lily hopefully.

She rolled her sleeves up, nodding and sliding the textbook over to her, checking the instructions over quickly before pursing her lips at the potion. Determination seeped from her every pore. “I’ll see what I can do.”

* * *

By the end of the lesson, Remus and Peter’s potion was nowhere near finished, but so wasn’t anybody else’s (apart from Snape and Lily’s, which received full marks and an excited congratulation from Slughorn at the end of the lesson). Lily had, however, managed to revert the results back to where the potion was supposed to be, saving the two from receiving the worst mark in the class. Jamie and Sirius didn’t do so bad in the end either, though they got marked down for the mess their half-acidic potion had made of the table where it had spilled out.

In the evening after dinner, her pyjamas already on, Lily sat on her bed after saying goodnight to Mary, who had opted to finish her transfiguration essay before going to sleep.

“McGonagall’s gonna drive me into the ground, I swear,” she had groaned. “I can’t imagine what fifth year OWLs are going to be like if a can’t even do this!” She had gestured to her quarter-finished paper, the edges brimmed with ink spots and blotched. “Really, Lily, kill me now.”

Lily had laughed and told her to hang in there before ascending the staircase, leaving Mary to grapple with McGonagall and her iron fist.

She giggled quietly to herself at the image, putting her book away on her shelf. She looked back at the only other bed in the room.

Jamie was sitting with her back again the headpost, staring out of the window.

“Hey, you ready for me to cut the lights?” said Lily, arching an eyebrow at her.

“Oh.” Jamie startled and blinked over at her. She stretched her legs out over the matrass, glancing quickly over to the window and back again. “Um, yeah, sure.”

The light blinked out. Lily slid into her bed, relaxing her body into the matrass. Then:

“Hey, Evans?”

“What?”

“You don’t happen to know a bloke named Voldemort, right?”

Lily turned, staring out into the darkness between her bed and Jamie’s. “Not that I know of.”

“Oh. Okay. Never mind, then.”

“Why?”

Lily waited for an answer. Her roommate paused, hesitating.

“It’s not important,” Jamie said finally. “Just wanted to know if you know him, that’s all.”

“Alright then,” said Lily. Then, “Goodnight, Potter.”

“Night, Evans.”

And still, as the darkness got deeper and Jamie’s breathing slowed and calmed, Lily stayed awake. She stared at the grey and black outline of her canopy, blinking into nothingness – wondering.


	7. Monsters

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry, this one is a little darker. Nice moments still included, of course.  
> Hope you enjoy :)

Sirius woke with a start – shaking, sweaty – tangled up in his sheets.

He sat up slowly, raising his quivering hands to his face, wiping away at the mucus and tears spilling from his eyes and nose.

He looked around the dorm. The dark, mountainous silhouettes on the other two beds rose and fell in even intervals. Neither Remus nor Peter had been roused from their slumber by him and, secretly, Sirius was glad. Still shaking, he slipped out of bed, padding across the dormitory floor to the door in bare feet, something strange – heavy – blooming in the depths of his stomach.

He rarely ever remembered his dreams, but this one had been pretty clear.

His mother had been there, looking down her nose at him – stuck on the floor, unable to move. She existed as a dark shadow towering above him – watching, criticising. Her words ricocheted around his head on an endless loop, beating a tattoo into his skull.

_‘Disappointment.’_

_‘Worthless.’_

_‘Disgrace.’_

_‘No son of mine.’_

_‘Defect. Mistake.’_

_‘Crucio!’_

Sirius flinched, stopping mid-staircase. His heart beat frantically in his chest, his fingers curling around the banister.

_‘Pathetic.’_

_‘Crucio.’_

His breath came out in gasps. He was suffocating, like someone had pulled a plastic bag over his nose – he was going to drown.

_‘Worthless.’_

_‘Crucio!’_

“Sirius?”

His gaze snapped forwards.

“I’m down here, mate.”

Jamie was sitting by the fireplace, curled into herself in one of the armchairs, her eyebrow raised at him in unspoken question.

Sirius gulped dry, broken out of his trance, and descended the last of the staircase, moving closer to the hearth so he stood by the sofa. He leaned on the back of it, trying his best to seem careless. “What’re you doing down here?”

“Could ask you the same thing.”

“Touché.” He slid down into the corner of the sofa, setting a pillow down into his lap.

Jamie sighed, picking at the loose threads in the armchair. “I woke up at around two and couldn’t stop thinking about what had happened before.”

“I couldn’t sleep either.”

“Are you okay?”

The question was so sudden, Sirius brain short-circuited for a little bit. “What do you mean?”

“I dunno, you kinda froze up there. On the staircase.”

Sirius didn’t answer, staring into the flames. Jamie kept studying him, illuminated by the fire, her hazel eyes flitting across his face.

“Did you have a nightmare?” she said finally. Sirius felt shame spike through him. “It’s okay if you did. That whole thing with the Voldemort guy freaked me out too.”

“It wasn’t about him – I mean, it was freaky, but…” Sirius trailed off. “I don’t really want to talk about it.”

Jamie paused, then nodded. “Alright.” She reached over to a table and pulled down two spare teacups, setting one down in front of Sirius. “Want any tea?”

“Yeah. Thanks.” Sirius reached over and took a sip. “Hey, this is good!”

“Course it is.” Jamie smiled, a little cockiness escaping into the curve of her mouth. “I make some of the best tea ever.”

Sirius kicked at her foot. “Its average at best. This is just my surprised reaction to it being marginally drinkable.”

Jamie pulled a face at him and he smirked. He breathed in the aroma but didn’t waste time in gulping it down, not wanting to contradict himself. He didn’t know about ‘ _the best_ ’, but it was certainly good.

The warm liquid washed the jitters away, taking the edge off the storm brewing inside him.

They stayed there, warmed by the fire, for the rest of the might. Jamie provided impersonations of teachers and students (common targets being Lucius Malfoy, Severus Snape, and Nathaniel always-late-for-everything Keys) and Sirius fetched a chess set from one of the shelves. He was terrible, but it didn’t matter. The night-time air of the common room was punctuated by muffling laughter, snorts, and giggles.

At some point they nodded off.

Mary MacDonald along with Frank Longbottom and Lily Evans found them in the morning – Sirius sprawled across the sofa, one hand still clutching a queen chess piece, struggling get from his half-open hand to the coffee table without falling to the ground. Jamie lay half on the floor, half on the coffee table, arms beneath her head, an empty blue teacup laying on its side next to her cheek.

Frank grinned. “Looks like they had fun.”

“Gonna be mighty tired today, though.” Mary intoned. She looked over Jamie and Sirius, amused.

“What do you know, maybe they just stayed here a little bit after everyone else went to sleep.”

“Nope,” sighed Lily, remembering how quickly Jamie had fallen asleep the other night and how long it had taken _her_ (the clock on her bedside table had shown eleven-thirty when she had finally slipped into unconsciousness). She didn’t ever remember her roommate getting up and leaving the dormitory. “McGonagall’s gonna kill them. They don’t pay enough attention as it is.” She noticed the struggling queen and lifted her up to the chess set, sliding it back onto the shelf.

Mary scoffed. “Not if Hooch kills them first. You guys have Flying lessons today, right?”

Lily groaned, stepping out through the portrait hole. She had completely forgotten about that.

Frank nudged her in the shoulder. “Oh, come on, it’ll be fine. I’ve seen you. You’re better than most of them.”

“Not better than Potter, though, as she so vehemently likes to remind everyone,” murmured Lily. She through her arms up. “She gets like ten times worse during those lessons! She can’t keep her ruddy mouth shut!”

Mary laughed. “Well, to be fair, she _is_ really good.”

“That makes it even worse!”

“You’ll survive Jamie. Quidditch is dumb anyways,” said Mary, reassuring her.

Frank looked appalled. He stared at Mary – mouth agape. “Quidditch is not _dumb_! How can you say that?”

Mary shrugged, shouldering her bag. “It’s just a bunch of crazy sweaty athletes flying around after a few balls. It’s just not that appealing. Hey, where’s Henry by the way?”

Frank clearly looked like he wanted to keep arguing about the appeal of Quidditch and its relevance to young wizards and witches, but he yielded, ramming his hands into his pockets. “He woke up earlier and ditched me to study for Charms. Flitwick told him to learn last lessons charm by today and he _just_ remembered yesterday when we were going to sleep, idiot.”

That made Lily slap herself on the forehead. “Goddammit.”

“What?”

“I forgot Defence homework.” She turned on her heal and started swiftly back to the portrait. “Go ahead without me!”

She reached the Fat Lady and was about to give her the password, when the portrait swung open, almost knocking Lily off her feet. The person who came through actually _did_ manage to knock her over.

They rammed straight into her and Lily, already unbalanced, landed butt-first on the dusty floor. The figure blinked and startled when they saw her on ground, moving over to her – flustered. Waves of light hair danced around their forehead.

“Oh my god, Lily, I’m so sorry.”

She accepted Remus Lupin’s outstretched hand and stood up, dusting herself off. She looked through the portrait hole behind him. “Where’s the rest of the caravan?”

“Oh – um –” his voice dipped uncertainly – “They, um, wanted to sleep in and I have to go to the library.” He turned to her, meeting her eyes, a bit of a blush spreading on his cheeks. “Why are you going back in?”

“I just forgot my homework, that’s all,” she said, not the least bit interested in the stupid homework anymore. She studied him carefully. “Are you okay, Remus?”

Remus smiled. “Yeah, of course. I just feel a little queasy. I might go to Pomfrey after breakfast.”

“That’s good then,” said Lily, smiling back at him. “Just be sure to go to her. Just in case.”

“Course,” he said, nodding at her in assurance. He thumbed down the corridor, lips curving nervously, “Well, I should probably go now. Good luck with your homework, Lily.”

“Thanks.”

Remus left down the corridor, the early morning light breaking against his figure as he advanced, throwing long shadows that travelled across the floor and up the walls, flitting in between the beams that separated the windows.

Dust danced in the rays of light – spiralling – coaxed into motion by his footsteps and Lily looked after him, her eyelashes fluttering against the sun.

“Well, girl, are you coming in or not?” The Fat Lady was growing impatient, crossing her arms in her painting.

“Yes, yes, sorry.”

Lily shook her head, stepping in through the portrait hole. Remus and his strange behaviour could wait.

She had to face the day first.

* * *

Strange behaviour was not what Remus was going for. He had done _so_ well at pretending for Sirius and Peter, not caving beneath their curious looks and glances. Lily had caught him off guard.

He could still feel the effects of the full moon on his skin – in his bones. It had been a particularly bad one and it was all he could do to hide the bruises and tears he had been rewarded with from the others. At least now, with Lily’s suggestion, he had an excuse for going to visit Madam Pomfrey.

Walking through the cold, empty corridors, his steps echoing against the walls as he hurried to the Hospital Wing, Remus hoped he wouldn’t bump into anyone. At least not anyone that he knew. He didn’t know how he’d go about explaining to the three of them why he hadn’t woken them up, especially Sirius and Jamie, who looked like they could sleep through the entire day and then some in a wink. Remus fleetingly wondered how Peter would feel when he woke up to an empty dormitory.

“Mr. Lupin, finally – I’ve been waiting for you all morning.”

Remus blinked up from the floor. Before he could so much as register that Madam Pomfrey was there in front of him and that he didn’t have two full lengths of corridor to go before reaching the Hospital Wing, a pair of surprisingly strong arms ushered him in, closing the door behind them carefully.

“As late as you were, I was getting worried you had gotten lost again.” Pomfrey bustled around the potions’ cabinet, pulling out a couple of bottles and closing it again. The vibrant liquids inside sloshed around as she set them on the table. “I had half the mind to go fetch you myself.”

She studied him carefully, going over his torso and spindly arms with narrowed eyes. “You _have_ been taking care of those cuts, haven’t you? Taking your potion, not straining yourself too much?”

Remus rubbed his arms. “Yes. I – I’m doing my best at it.”

Her eyes flitted over him a second longer and then she nodded, turning back to the potions, busying herself with measuring out perfect ratios and combinations. “Good. Very good. Nasty business, werewolf cuts. Can’t heal them the usual way. Not very fast, anyways – much longer healing process since they’re done by a magical being. Work quite the same as wounds caused by curses. Smart boy you are, I’m sure you know.”

Remus nodded meekly, watching the solution swirl around in the bottle. She glanced over at him and – stirring the potion once more (anticlockwise, if you must know) – bottled it, sighing.

“Alright, child. That’s that done. We just have to change those bandages of yours now and you can be off to breakfast with the others,” she said and, with her usual tact, sat him down on one of the beds, preparing the bandages. She handled him gently, however, and, when she was sending him on his way with a new bottle of miracles, looked at him with almost motherly concern. It both warmed Remus’ heart and constricted it with guilt. Though for what, he couldn’t decide.

_Others._

Breakfast with the others. That, he figured, was the truly ironic and disillusioning part of the whole conversation. Remus was many things, but a part of those people to whom Madam Pomfrey had referred to as ‘other’ wasn’t one of them. His ‘others’ could only be found at night on the full moon, roaming the forests. How quickly would he be expelled from the school, exiled from society if ever anyone found out? How quickly, if the world recognised his imposter-like presence within these ancient walls, existing among normal wizarding youth – wizarding future?

His friends, or those that he had come in those past few weeks to recognise as such, would only remain by his side as long as they didn’t know. Didn’t know about the monster that lurked beneath the exterior that was Remus Lupin.

Then he’d be all alone.

In a sense – he reckoned – he already was.

Remus pressed the bottle harder against his chest and stared down at the many shoes of the passing crowd.


	8. The Price of Friendship

Sun shone down onto the Hogwarts courtyard that day. Summer had been called on for an encore.

Owls flapped in and out of the Owlery – settling on the turret of the tower above – and students in classrooms gazed dazedly out of windows, the novelty of the year worn, and replaced by the annual grind.

No wind ruffled the leaves of the Whomping Willow and even the Black Lake’s waters remained calm and clear, the Giant Squid drifting beneath the surface and soaking in the sun that shot in rays through the water. The air was still.

Jamie was not.

“WHOOOOOOOO!” She zipped through the air, tumbling and turning as she pleased, showing off ridiculous stunts to the people down below.

Sirius, Remus, and Peter hovered a few metres lower, a little ways away from the rest of the year group. Sirius practically lounged on his broom, considerably more confident looking than the other two.

“Careful, Potter, your glasses might just give up on you one of these days!” He yelled after her, lips stretched into a smirk.

Peter blinked beside him. “That’s actually a pretty valid pint, though.” He turned to Remus. “Why _haven’t_ her glasses fallen off yet?”

Fumbling around on his broom, trying his best not to look down, Remus answered, “You got me. I have trouble just staying alive on this thing.”

The area around them suddenly got considerably calmer. Peter searched around, squinting. “Hey, where’s Sirius?” His eyes widened. “Oh Merlin, do you think he fell off? Sirius!” He looked down frantically, as if expecting Sirius’ body to hit the ground any minute.

“I don’t think he –”

“OVER HERE! PASS IT OVER HERE, YOU SPECKY GIT!” a red rubber ball shot right by Remus’ ear, brushing through his hair.

He sighed. “Never mind, I’ve found him.”

A blur of red and black flew after the ball, Sirius’ eyes wide and excited, tearing a little at the edges from the speed. He didn’t catch the ball before it hit the ground and had to tumble onto the grass to retrieve it, straddling his broom and streaking back upwards with his fist raised high, the ball nestled in his palm like a trophy.

“Learn to throw, Potter!” He crowed, tossing the ball back at Jamie. She caught it with ease.

“Learn to catch, Black!”

She threw the ball back at him hard. It almost knocked Sirius off his broomstick as he caught it, clutched against his chest.

“Bloody hell. You almost knocked me off, traitor!”

Jamie just laughed and sped off, Sirius on her tail, throwing the ball at her turned back.

Madam Hooch didn’t say or do anything, but Remus could see her keeping a particularly close eye on the pair, her hand on her whistle. The rest of the year seemed pretty mellow, a few other pureblood kids attempting similar stunts - yes - but none quite in the same league of craziness as those of his two wild housemates. He had never felt so sympathetic towards a teacher in his life. Truly, getting Jamie and Sirius not to do something was like herding cats away from fish.

Mrs. Norris didn’t even know how close she had been to being turned into a feline naked mole rat.

Twice.

They had actually done it the third time. Merlin thank Filch didn’t find the cat hair in their robes.

‘A fine first prank for aspiring mischief makers’, Sirius had called it. That didn’t stop Remus from taking all of their clothes and dumping them in the laundry to get the fur out. He didn’t sleep a wink that night out of sheer anxiety. If there was one thing he absolutely did not want to do, it was disappoint Dumbledore, and shearing the caretaker’s cat seemed the way to go about doing just that.

Unfortunately, Remus was doubtful that that would be the last of their brushes with delinquency. Jamie had acquired quite the malicious spark in her eyes recently, and, if anything screamed ‘trouble’, it would be that damn spark.

“– go up there, y’know?”

Remus was shocked to attention. “What?”

“Oh, you weren’t listening,” Peter said, going from fervid to deflated in the span of a second.

Remus blinked and smiled, though still a little confused. “I’m sure they’d be happy to let you join.”

“No, but that’s not the –” Peter gripped the broomstick handle tighter, his back hunching. “Ah, forget it.”

Remus felt a twinge of guilt at not listening to Peter but before he could get a chance to address it, a voice called to them from across the field.

“Remus! Peter!” Lily Evans glided towards them, waving with her free hand. Trailing her was a sullen looking Severus Snape. He appeared about as confident on a broomstick as Remus would on a motorcycle.

“Hey,” said Peter, still a little butthurt.

Remus smiled and returned Lily’s wave. “Hullo Lily, Severus.”

The latter looked over the two of them, then, sounding as if it physically pained him, said, “Hello… Lupin.”

“I’m here too,” Peter said, frowning. The comment went ignored.

Instead, Lily looked up, distracted by a particularly loud whoop from up above. Its source was traversing the courtyard in loop-the-loops, her glasses hanging off by her ears. She came to a smooth stop by the tiled roof of one of the outside corridors, whirling around to repeat the stunt in the opposite direction. Her gaze caught Lily’s and she winked, wiggling her eyebrows, waving to a few kids who had clapped for the feat.

Lily pulled a face. “Doesn’t she ever get tired of it?”

Remus replied with a grin. “Indulging her ego? Don’t think so.”

“Well, there’s sleep, isn’t there?” intoned Peter, finger pointed up to the sky.

“Please,” said Lily, scoffing, “I’m willing to bet that her dreams are just as full of it as _that_ is.” She pointed across the grassy expanse to where Jamie and Sirius were taking turns catching the rubber ball as late as possible without crashing to the ground. As the four of them watched, Jamie pulled out a mere foot above the stalks, parading the ball about as Sirius clapped her on the back and the small crowd of on-lookers (including a few Slytherins, miraculously) gasped or clapped. Lily raised her eyebrows. “I mean, really.”

Remus watched the Sirius-and Jamie-Show continue to play out in affectionate bemusement. “Well, at least they’re having fun.”

“It’s ridiculous.” Severus had finally pitched in to the conversation and Remus and Peter’s heads snapped to him as if in surprise that he was still there. His eyes were glaring in the crowd’s direction.

Rather conveniently, it was at that moment that the huddle decided to disperse, and two sweaty, grinning bundles of messy hair and wide eyes made their way towards the little side-group.

Sirius circled around to Remus and bumped him in the shoulder, making the latter teeter on the broom dangerously. “What’re you losers doing over here?”

Remus regained his grip on his broom. “Trying not to fall, which was going quite fine until _you_ came along.” Sirius grinned.

Jamie laughed, coming to a stop next to Peter. “Should put you on a leash, Black. Reduce the amount of people Pomfrey’s gotta treat for migraines.”

“Pretty rich, coming from you.” Lily raised an eyebrow. “Or was that a figment of my imagination that hummed _Puff the Magic Dragon_ non-stop until midnight yesterday?”

“Nice to see you too, Evans,” said Jamie. Her eyes flashed from Lily to Severus. “And look at that, you brought Snivellus along.”

Lily scowled. “His name is Severus, as you very well know.”

“Doesn’t capture his essence very well, though, does it?” Sirius said, leaning forward on his broom. “Snivellus Snape has quite the ring to it, I’d say.”

Severus bristled; his face twisted into a sneer. “At least I don’t parade myself around like a peacock,” he retorted, gesturing shortly to where Sirius and Jamie were showing off just a few minutes ago.

“And you’d know quite a lot about those, wouldn’t you, seeing how much you suck up to the biggest one in the school,” countered Sirius.

Jamie smirked. “With that hair that bloke’s got, one might think you’re trying to compensate for some things.” Her eyes looked over Severus’ own greasy strands.

“Alright, that’s it.” Lily’s eyes pierced Jamie and Sirius in turn. She gripped her broom handle tightly and forced herself to count to ten. “You two should be ashamed of yourselves – attacking someone like big babies. Sev hasn’t done anything to you, and you aren’t worth our time.” She turned to Remus. “See you in the common room at seven?” Remus nodded. She gave Jamie one last burning look and then turned her broom around and shot off, propelled by significantly more purpose than before. Severus almost slipped off his broomstick trying to follow after her.

The four of them watched them leave for a moment, then Remus turned to Sirius and Jamie, looking from one to the other. “Seriously? Was that necessary?”

Jamie opened her mouth to respond but was promptly interrupted by a chuckle. Peter was shaking with suppressed laughter, letting out little snorts as he struggled not to slip sideways of his broomstick.

She glanced to him. “What?”

“No, it – it’s just –” Peter gasped for air, struggling to articulate a sentence between giggles – “I’ve just – just realised… _Sirius-_ ly.”

Sirius’ eyes twinkled with humour as he looked to Remus, a Cheshire grin spreading across his face. “See, Rey? It was _Sirius_ -ly necessary.”

Remus sighed, but couldn’t supress the grin tugging at the corners of his mouth. “That really doesn’t count as an excuse.”

“Dunno, seems good enough to me,” said Jamie. She slapped Peter on the back, grinning. “Good one, Pete.”

Peter as good as lit up.

* * *

Classes had ended and the four of them hobbled back into the boys’ dormitory, full to bursting from dinner. Peter fell face first onto his bed and groaned into the duvet, Remus sinking into his desk chair as Jamie and Sirius took over Sirius’ bed and the carpet, respectively.

They stayed like that for a couple of minutes, too tired out and warm around the middle to do much anything. Jamie’s hand darted around above her, half-heartedly chasing an imaginary snitch – Remus grabbed a notepad and started to draw. Only Sirius seemed in any way eager to start conversation.

His eyes flitted from one of his friends to the other, always landing back on Jamie, jerking his head and making faces at her to gain her attention. He even tried mouthing her name, which did about as good as a fly trying to give an elephant a black eye.

Peter peered at his friend, half of his face still smushed in the duvet. Roused from his post-meal sleepiness by the wide-eyed seagull-looking maniac from across the room, he sighed, pushing himself up. He really, really hoped this wasn’t something insane again. It had been a week and he was still finding cat fur in increasingly unflattering places.

“What is it?” he asked finally, voice tentative.

Surprisingly, considering her complete oblivion to Sirius’ wild attempts at interaction, Jamie reacted first. “What is what?”

“Sirius has been violently jerking his head at you for the past five minutes.”

Sirius threw his hands up, sitting cross-legged on the carpet. “Finally, bloody hell. How in the name of Merlin’s saggy left tit did you not notice me, Potter?”

“You could’ve just said something.” Jamie shrugged, raising an eyebrow.

“No, I bloody well couldn’t have. It’s about… you know.”

“No?”

“Oh, come on, Jamie, even you’re not that thick.”

Remus looked up from his notebook. “What is it, Sirius?”

Taking a deep breath, Sirius looked around the room and said, “Jamie and I –” he glared at Jamie for emphasis – “have something to share with you lot.”

“We do?”

Sirius raised an eyebrow. “No, of course not, Jamie. Freaky voices and Dark Lords clearly fall under the umbrella of completely sane and everyday occurrences.”

Jamie blinked. “Oh, yeah, right.” She turned to face Remus and Peter. “Sirius and I have something to tell you.” Sirius smacked his forehead and then turned to the other two expectantly.

Peter and Remus shared an uncertain look. The window ran with raindrops.

* * *

The pitter patter of the rain against the glass pane of the window suddenly seemed deafening, the room unfittingly bright and warm. The four children sat in an uneven circle on beds – a chair – the carpet – glancing at one another with of unease and determination and something else. When Remus shivered, it was not with the cold.

He rubbed his arms, fingers running across the wool. There were goosebumps all over his arms – he knew it, even without looking. “So, what do we do now?”

“What do you mean, what do we do now?” Peter startled, staring at him wide-eyed from his bed, covers bunched up in his lap. “We can’t do anything. We’re kids. What if someone tries to hurt us or – or something. It’s bad enough that this Dark Lord guy saw those two –” he pointed to Jamie and Sirius – “We don’t have to go getting ourselves in trouble as well. Besides, we don’t know if they’re doing anything bad, really.”

Sirius rolled his eyes. “Of course, they’re doing something bad. One of my crazy cousins was there, and her stupid boyfriend Malfoy, too.”

“Well, we can’t assume –”

Jamie cut him off, running a hand through her hair, “You weren’t there Pete. This Voldemort guy is bad news – nobody who has any good intentions could sound – talk – like that. Besides, they said a teacher was getting suspicious of them, too, so it’s not only us.”

“Well, maybe it’s the teacher being bad.”

“Then we still have to deal with it, don’t we?” said Sirius. “It’s still an issue.”

“Look,” Remus interjected, raising his arms up to quell the rising tone of the discussion, “the fact stands that we can’t do anything until we know more. If we do, then no one is going to take us seriously and the real threat might get away. We don’t even know who Lord Voldemort _is_ yet.”

Peter’s eyebrows pinched together. “Can’t we just go to Dumbledore?” he whined.

“You really think _Dumbledore_ ’ll believe us?” challenged Jamie, leaning forward. “ _Oh, hey there, Headmaster! Guess what, two of your top students are conspiring against the school along with a disembodied voice!_ ”

Sirius pointed at her pointedly.

Remus nodded. “Yeah, Dumbledore’s not an option. At least not now. We have to gather information first.”

Jamie rubbed her chin. “I guess I could write my folks a letter about it. Just ask them if they know any Voldemorts.”

“Yeah, and the rest of us could take turns trailing the suspects, aka my cousin and her pet peacock,” said Sirius.

Remus tore a page out of his notebook (the one in the very middle, so as to not damage the rest of it) and pulled out a quill. “For notes,” he said, when Sirius gave him a questioning look.

Peter sat on his bed, removed from the planning, only partly of his own volition. He didn’t miss how Sirius had stopped addressing him once he’d shown contempt for the plan but told himself he didn’t care. He’d help. After all, they couldn’t ignore him if he were in on it with them.

He lay down, back to the conversation, and closed his eyes, trying hard to ignore the gnawing feeling in his stomach.


	9. With Great Power...

The fire in the hearth dwindled, its embers pulsating with a brave imitation of sunlight. The glow drew dark shadows across the faces of the Gryffindors lounging in the chairs and sofas – noses buried in books – eyes flitting across wizard chess boards.

Lily herself was slowly but surely sinking into an armchair facing the fire, a fuzzy feeling spreading through her stomach as she read, engrossed in her novel and finally – finally – able to relax. She was so comfortable that she didn’t even notice Remus walk down the stairs and seat himself opposite of her.

He set his textbooks and notes on the table, lining them up carefully.

“Hey, Lily.”

Nothing.

“Lily?”

The sound of a turning page.

Remus reached over the table to pat her on the shoulder, and the back of his hand brushed close to the tabletop, knocking into a half-drunk mug of coffee. Already jutting out over the edge, the mug tipped over and rolled onto the carpet, staining it slowly brown.

“Ah, shit.” Remus dove for the mug, then started furiously scrubbing away at the carpet with a handkerchief.

“Remus?” Lily peeked out over the edge of the book. Her eyes found Remus on all fours between the sofa and coffee table. “What –?”

“Coffee,” explained Remus, sitting up, and brushing his hands off. “I, um, knocked it over. I’m sorry, it’s not coming out. It…” He gestured at the expanding stain helplessly.

Laughing softly and brushing the hair out of her eyes, Lily sat up straighter. “It’s alright, look.” She set her book aside and opened one of her own textbook, lying beside Remus’ on the coffee table. “ _Scourgify_.”

The stain receded in synchronisation with the flick of her wrist, leaving but an empty mug lying unharmed on the scarlet carpet.

“Wow,” said Remus, looking at her with newfound respect. “That’s one neat spell.”

“It is.”

“Where did you learn it?”

Lily shrugged, settling back into her armchair. Remus, meanwhile, sat himself down on the sofa, lifting the mug off the ground and placing it carefully at the far end of the table. “I came across it while flipping through the Charms textbook is all. Seemed pretty useful, so…”

“Useful is accurate,” agreed Remus. He slid his textbooks and notes over to him, lining them up neatly. Having adjusted a piece of paper at the top of the pile, he looked over to Lily and grinned. “Don’t think the owner will be too happy about it, though.”

“An experienced hot drink consumer would know to never leave their beverage unattended,” Lily countered in mock formality, eyes twinkling. “That’s something you learn fast when you have competitive siblings.”

“You have siblings?”

Lily nodded. “One… a sister.” Something dark and uneasy flickered in her eyes. She sighed. “We… it’s complicated.”

“I understand.”

He gave her a small smile and Lily reciprocated, softening up slowly. A warmth seemed to pass between them, the peaceful moment was supported by the pulsating hearth and the feeling of support and understanding.

The moment was broken by a third year, slamming his hands down on a chess board. “That knight was one space behind, and you bloody know it!”

A unified _shhh_ sounded from the other tables.

He slumped down irritably, glaring around at them as his chess buddy cough-laughed into her sleeve. “Shush yourselves.”

Startled, Lily and Remus looked at each other in nervous amusement, suppressing laughter. Finally, however, their gazes shifted down to the pile of work before them. Though work-centric Remus was, he had to admit that that mound daunted even him.

“So…,” Lily began, gesturing at the pile, “what do you wanna start with?”

“Is jumping forward into a future where we’ve already finished it an option?” said Remus jokingly, picking up _A Beginner’s Guide to Transfiguration_ and flipping it open to the right chapter.

“Time travel doesn’t exist, silly.” Lily grinned, rolling her eyes.

“Sure, it does.”

“Really? I always figured that was just something made up. Like in Doctor Who.”

Remus blinked and looked up from dipping his quill into his ink pot. “You’re at a wizarding school surrounded by ghosts all day with a deadly forest at your back and _time travel_ is where you draw the line?”

Flattening out a scroll of parchment onto the table, Lily’s lips twisted up into a smile. “I suppose it’s a little silly isn’t it? Normal people having the ability to pop in and out of time just seems like way too much power to have.” She paused and snorted. “Then again, I suppose turning tables into pigs is also pretty crazy.”

“I never really thought about it that way…. It’s a lot of responsibility when you really look at it.”

“Exactly. Just a question whether _some_ of us will handle it without exploding the school in the next seven years,” Lily said, glaring up at the stairs to the boys’ dormitories.

Remus followed her gaze, knowing full well who she was referring to. He tugged at his sleeves, worried they were riding up.

“They’re not that bad, you know. Once you get to know them.”

She scoffed. “You seem to forget that I share a room with one. The most annoying one, coincidentally.”

“Jamie can be a handful,” ceded Remus, “but once you actually manage to have a normal conversation with her, she’s really not that bad. Sirius too.”

“They tease Severus for no reason. I can’t be friends with someone who makes fun of my other friends.”

“That’s fair.” Remus nodded. A blush spread over his face. “I’m sorry about the flying lesson, by the way. That was… unnecessary.”

Shaking her head, Lily sighed in frustration. “It’s not you who has to apologise. It’s them. And I’ll bet you every penny I have that’s not about to happen any time soon.”

“I think I’ll be safer not taking you up on that one.” He refocused on the textbook and set it between them, tapping on the page. “Here, see, chapter twelve.”

“Turn it a little this way? Okay, thanks.”

They set to work, quills scratching away at the essay due next lesson, squinting at the textbook to look up the terminology and theory. It was past ten o’clock by the time they had finished and reviewed each other’s work, rubbing at their tired eyes, and yawning into their sleeves.

Lily stretched her back as Remus collected his textbooks, and they bid each other goodnight, going up opposite staircases. By that time, the only other people left in the dormitory were NEWT students. Bilius waved to them sleepily as they left.

For once, all was quiet in the boys’ dorm. Jamie had fallen asleep on the carpet, surrounded by plans drawn out on spare parchments – Sirius out cold on his bed. Peter, bundled up in his covers, caught Remus’ eye as he entered, but closed his eyes again quickly. Tired and mentally drained, Remus fell asleep before his head hit the pillow.

Despite having no issue with the absence of humming, Lily stared up at the canopy long into the night – the first night she had ever fallen asleep alone.

* * *

“Potter!”

Lily’s voice cut through the morning air, making the Potter in question slip on the sticky mud and almost fall face flat into the grass.

Sirius smirked at her, looking back to see Lily Evans striding across the grounds towards them, her Herbology textbook tucked under her arm.

“Looks like Remus’ girlfriend wants a word with you, _Pooootter_ ,” he said mockingly.

A few metres before them, Remus whirled around, face red. “She’s not my girlfriend.”

“Oh, really? So, what do you do all alone in the common room that late – _study_?”

“Maybe if you spent less time sheering the caretaker’s cats and failing your classes, you might feel the need to do it too.”

Jamie snorted with laughter, but stopped abruptly as Lily reached them, her blazing eyes replacing amusement with tentative curiosity.

“Alright, Evans?”

“Where were you last night?”

“What are you, my mother?” Jamie rolled her eyes as Lily raised an eyebrow. She thumbed at Sirius and Remus. “I was with them.”

“Do you understand the point of separate dormitories? Because they were designed to make sure boys and girls _didn’t_ sleep together.”

“Bloody hell, Evans, what am I gonna do? Do it with Sirius?”

“Ew, no, jeez.” Sirius grimaced, his face twisted in disgust. “Sorry, Potter, but I’m afraid you’re simply not my type.”

Jamie flashed a grin his way and then turned straight back to Lily. “Besides, Evans, I didn’t _mean_ to sleep there. I just fell asleep. And on the carpet, mind you, so no need to get huffy about it.”

“I’m not getting huffy about anything,” Lily shot back, “I just don’t want us all to get into trouble in the first month because you and Sirius are joined at the hip.”

She swung by them and started further down the slope, making a beeline to the greenhouses and Peter Pettigrew, standing just outside the doorway, looking up at his friends in confusion.

Just as she passed by her, Jamie smirked and said, “Nice to know you missed me, Evans.”

“Missed you for what? Your nightly monologue?” called Lily over her shoulder.

Jamie opened her mouth, then closed it, looking rather like a fish. Shaking her head, she followed the others further down the path, mud slipping her up still.

In the entrance to the greenhouses, Peter and Remus already having slipped inside, Sirius caught Jamie’s eye, and turned away, snorting.

“What?”

“Wanna tell Evans how much your back hurts from that carpet?” he said, eyes twinkling with well-meaning malice.

Jamie shoved his back, pushing him into the greenhouse. “Oh, bugger off.”

Sirius laughed as he stumbled down the aisle, throwing himself down into his seat. Sirius’ shoulder catching him in the back, Peter teetered on his chair and shoved Sirius in return, frowning.

Remus shushed them quickly, pointing towards the front of the class.

Up there, surrounded by a wide halo of vegetation, Professor Usine had started the lesson, parading about some purplish plant with great tentacle-looking extremities poking out of its petals. The students at the front were having a job leaning away from the things, disgust written on their faces.

He was just in the middle of talking about the healing propertied of its root extract when Sirius leaned over the table to Jamie.

“Hey, did you send your folks the letter, yet?” he whispered.

Jamie, shocked out of her bored inspection of some stray soil scattered on the table, lifted her head to him. She looked around, and whispered, “Yeah, I sent Monty out this morning. They should answer in a day or two.”

“They better. We can’t very well go on with the investigation if we don’t know who this Voldemort guy is.” Sirius sighed exasperatedly. “And trailing my cousins is a nightmare. They always travel in packs. I’ve had to hide in a closet from them at least three times now.”

“Didn’t you _just_ start trailing them this morning?” Peter chimed in, leaning towards them.

“Spying is hard work, Pete.” Sirius raised an eyebrow. “Thought you weren’t interested in this at all.”

Suddenly engrossed in the grain of the table, Peter said, “So what? I changed my mind.”

The only one who hadn’t yet participated, Remus turned to them, frustrated. “Is this really the place to discuss this? I can’t hear a thing he’s saying, ‘cause of you lot.”

Still whispering, Sirius raised an eyebrow. “Only reason you can hear us is ‘cause you’re sitting right next to us, Rey.”

Usine looked up from his lecture, locking eyes with Sirius. “The indistinct hum is quite enough to disturb my lesson, Mister Black. Is there anything you want to share with the class?”

“No thanks, Professor. All good,” Sirius called back, grinning, even as his face flushed.

Nodding, Usine returned to his lecture and Remus gave Sirius a meaningful look. The latter pulled a face.

Rain pitter pattered onto the glass panes of the Hogwarts greenhouses.

* * *

Elsewhere, Charlus Potter opened a letter from his daughter, expecting tales of friends and first classes. His eyes scanned the lines, and his knees gave out, sinking into an armchair.


End file.
